Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

wicked world into the holy church, then no doubt every one will agree that it always accompanies, and is united with baptism by water; but if by regeneration we understand, as some do understand, the commencing point of sanctification, then, doubtless, it never accompanies water baptism. In infants it cannot begin till long after; in adults it ought to commence before baptism. For they ought to be prepared by previous study and meditation, and, consequently, by commenced sanctification, for the holy rite. I think, Sir, you will agree with me that it is important we should understand each other on such matters; for never was there a time when it was more inexpedient than the present to split hairs upon matters wherein we really mean the same thing in different words, now that we are assailed on all sides by the united forces of popery, liberalism, and infidelity. In fact, it is a part of the policy of popery to foment and keep up discord among us; and I have very good reason for believing that this is actually done at the present moment to a very considerable extent, and that it forms part of a regular plan of attack on the Church of England.

I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,

PHOENIX.

LAMB'S HEBREW HIEROGLYPHICS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER.

SIR,-I would fain call your attention to a learned work, which, like some of the Geological productions, bears pretty hard upon the generally received interpretations of different passages of Scripture, and of which I have for some time looked for a review in your luminous pages. And I the rather do it, inasmuch as it militates against one or two opinions which I have met with in some late numbers of the CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER. It is no intention of mine to pass a judgment on the disputed points: I am not competent to the task. I read for information only. The work I allude to is Dr. Lamb's Hebrew Hieroglyphics, and the points on which the learned Doctor and the writers in your Review are at issue, and to which I have an eye at present, are the following, At page 285 in your number for May 1837 is this hypothesis :-" If Tartarus, the Abyss, or Hades, be in the earth, since Satan was loose from it when he tempted Eve, he must have been confined therein before the Adamitic period," &c. Now, it is not with any view to geological investigation that I am about to produce an assertion from Dr. Lamb's book, but to show how learned men differ about the very existence of an evil spirit, prior to the fall of man. At page 113 of Hebrew Hieroglyphics, I read as follows:-" I am not attempting to prove that satanic influence has not existed, or does not exist, but that the authors are not fallen angels, and had no existence before Eve's transgression." And again at page 116:-"There is a perfect silence in Scripture respecting any fallen angels, or the existence of sin prior to Adam's transgression."

The next point of difference is upon the word Elohim. "There is a great dispute about the derivation of this word; it is clearly of a plural form, &c.—says a writer at page 426 of your number for July, 1837. "The word has been considered by commentators as a plural noun, although connected with a verb in the singular. Now it is no such

thing," &c.-says Dr. Lamb, at page 79. Under these conflicting opinions and assertions, what are common readers to do? Unless those who take upon them to be the guides in literature and science will afford them some assistance, I see not what they can do but sit down contented under the impression and the hope, that, however these matters may be subjects for discussion, they are not articles of faith.

Oct. 24, 1838.

I am, &c.

A CONSTANT READER.

POEMS, BY JOHN CHARLES EARLE,
(St. Edmund Hall, Oxon.)

NO. III.PARADISE RESTORED.

I.

O GOD! how lovely is this fallen earth,—
Still through the tears of ages smiling bright,
Smiling in memory of her pristine birth,
Smiling in hope of an eternal light

To chase the shadows of her transient night.
Thou Sun of Righteousness! arise, and shine
In all thy mighty love, and lovely might :]
The world is little, Lord, but it is thine;
Who shall that signet ring tear from thy hand divine?

II

O Thou, who e'en the chambers of the tomb
Hast entered, lightened, hallowed, and caressed,
Annihilation cannot be the doom

Of that which thou hast made, and loved, and blest.
Soon every brand by sin and woe imprest
On this fair earth shall vanish quite away;

The fire which sleeps in the volcano's breast
Shall change it, not destroy, in one dread day;
The gold shall lose its dross, and shine with brighter ray.

III.

The smallest puncture in a bubble blown
Will dissipate the frail balloon in air;
The universe itself a law must own

As fixed, as wondrous as that globule fair:
Annihilate the feeblest atom there,
The softest down upon a rose-leaf's bloom,
Too small for vision, and for touch too rare,
And nature rushes headlong to her doom,
Collapsed into herself, a chaos and a tomb.

IV.

The bubble blown by the Almighty's breath,
Creation must be all she is, or nought;

Her parts may change-mutation is not death,
But each with each inextricably wrought
Predicts her ruin in the loss of aught:

A twinkling grain of sand, a constellation,
With like importance to the whole are fraught;
Each roving atom is the firm foundation,
The keystone of the arch, the pillar of creation.

V.

And will the Saviour see his ransomed world
Into the vortex of destruction leaping,
And o'er the precipice of ruin hurled,

Stars like the foam adown a torrent sweeping;
And dark and savage Desolation reaping

The harvest sprung from all those precious seeds
Sown in the wilderness by Jesus weeping,

To fertilize again the barren meads,

And make this thorny world a garden without weeds.

VI.

Nay, rather as Medea's magic shed

On age the joy of youth's delicious hours,
O'er limbs decayed the flush of beauty spread,
And wakened from the dust all vernal flowers;
So shall we see Salvation's genial powers
Start from the soul as from a centre, first
Refine, and glorify these frames of ours,
Then on this wintry world, so long accursed,
Like an eternal spring in perfect beauty burst.

VII.

Say, shall the victor leave the battle field
In full possession of his vanquished foe,
Nor there again the sword of conquest wield,
And there at length inflict the final blow,
And there the splendours of his prowess show,
And crush the Dragon on his chosen ground,
And o'er his victim, laid for ever low,
Implant his trophies, and exulting sound
The Pean which shall swell creation's circuit round?

[blocks in formation]

The relics of Theseus, real or supposed, were brought by Cymon from the Isle of Skyros to the Piræus, and deposited in the temple which bears his name, the loveliness of whose colouring is such "that from the rich mellow hue which the marble has now assumed, it looks as if it had been quarried not from the bed of a rocky mountain, but from the golden light of an Athenian sun-set."-Wordsworth's Athens and Attica, chap. 18.

Whose pillared roof of mellow marble stones
Seemed quarried from a cave of golden light,
Decay defying on Athena's height.

Eternal Jesus! was the earth thy tomb,

And did she close around thee like the night?
Yet shall she form thy temple, and her gloom
Will thy Shekinah burst, and endlessly illume.

IX.

Then shall we realize the Patriarch's vision,
And see the severed earth and heaven blending,
The desert changed into a field Elysian,
And angels on the Son of Man descending,*
The vail of Sin Time for ever rending,
And op'ning vistas to our ravished sight,
'Mid landscapes of supernal glory ending;
While all the hearts of all those sons of light
Like costly urns run o'er with waters of delight.

ON THE NOTICE FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE LORD'S

SUPPER.

SIR,-It is generally the custom with the Clergy to give notice for the celebration of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper after the reading of the Nicene Creed from the altar. I wish to ask my clerical brethren whether such custom is universally correct, according to the Rubric? After the Nicene Creed, we are directed to declare unto the people what holydays or fasting days are to be observed, and (if occasion be) to give notice of the Communion. This, I should conceive, means that, if any festival occur during the week, such as Good Friday or Christmas day, we are then to announce that the Lord's Supper will be commemorated. But observing, as we usually do, that holy rite at least once every month, on a Sunday, should we not give warning of its approach after the sermon is ended, as directed in the Rubric before the exhortation beginning "Dearly beloved, on day next I purpose, through God's assistance," &c.

I need hardly say how appropriately and beautifully that exhortation would be as the conclusion of a sermon explanatory of that divine rite, and with how much greater effect it might be introduced then, than after the delivery of the Nicene Creed.

If I am wrong in this supposition, I shall be truly happy to hear the opinions of some of your able correspondents on the subject.

I am, your obedient servant,

Nov. 19, 1838.

*

John i. 54.Gen xxviii. 12.

R. M. T.

LAW REPORT.

No. LXI. AN ACT TO AMEND THE GENERAL LAWS NOW IN BEING FOR REGULATING TURNPIKE ROADS IN THAT PART OF GREAT BRITAIN CALLED ENGLAND.

3 GEORGE IV. CAP. CXXVI.

We take the liberty of presenting to our readers, lay as well as clerical, two extracts from the above Act of Parliament, in which they may be more or less occasionally concerned.

EXEMPTIONS from tolls. SEC. XXXII.

And be it further enacted that no toll shall be demanded or taken by virtue of this or any other Act or Acts of Parliament on any turnpike road

. . . . of or from any person or persons going to or returning from his, her, or their proper parochial church or chapel, or of or from any other person or persons going to or returning from his, her, or their usual place of religious worship tolerated by law, on Sundays, or on any day on which divine service is by authority ordered to be celebrated; or of or from any inhabitant of any parish, township or place, going to or returning from attending the funeral of any person who shall die and be buried in the parish, township or hamlet in which any turnpike road shall lie; or from any Rector, Vicar, or Curate going to or returning from visiting any sick parishioner,

or on other his parochial duty within his parish.

By Section 33. it appears that the exemption does not extend "to any such person or persons (as before enumerated) from the payment of toll situate within the distance of five miles of the Royal Exchange in the City of London, or within the distance of five miles of Westminster Hall in the City and Liberties of Westminster."

From Section 32 it has been decided at the Abingdon Quarter Sessions in Berkshire, that the itinerant overseer of the Methodist chapels is liable to pay toll, he not being on his way to his usual place of worship.

We have also heard it stated that if a Clergyman have two livings, upon one of which he has a licensed Curate, that the Rector and Curate cannot exchange duties without both being liable to pay toll at the turnpike that may be between the two parishes. How far this may be law for the Rector who is licensed to both parishes we will leave our readers to decide. If there be an objection we suppose it will turn upon the word usual.

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »