too fast or too slow. As, then, we should condemn him of folly that should profess to trust the clock rather than the sun, so we cannot but justly tax the credulity of those who would rather trust to the Church than to the Scripture.— Bishop Hall. CHURCH.-The Scriptures in the It is a fact too pregnant with instruction to be lightly passed over, that in every corrupt form of the Christian Church there has been more than a neglect to instruct the people through the general reading of the Scriptures-there has been a negation of it, a prohibition against it; and "the key of knowledge" being thus taken away by having the Holy Scriptures locked up in an ecclesiastical language, the progress of error has been easy, and its triumph complete. The device of Satan has been in this case to establish human authority in religion; and, by turning the edge of the sword of the Spirit, to weaken and counteract His influences. The sad result has been that the communities which retained the forms of Christianity have been no ways superior to the surrounding heathen in all that constitutes the distinguishing glory of Christianity—in knowledge, in holiness, in purity of principle, and general uprightness in walk and conversation. -Professor Scholefield. CHURCH.-The Seasons of the The Church makes the days and months and seasons witnesses before God and men of the great events of our Lord's life on which our religion is founded. She makes the year itself in its course preach to us in orderly succession of our Lord's First Advent to save the world, and of His Second Advent to judge the world, of His Incarnation and Birth of a virgin-of His Circumcision and Presentation in the Temple-of His Baptism, Fasting, and Temptation-of His Agony and Bloody Sweat-of His Cross and Passion-of His precious Death and Burial-of His glorious Resurrection and Ascension-and of the coming of the Holy Ghost. The setting apart of the days and seasons to be consecrated to the memory of these events-the appointment of special collects, lessons, epistles, gospels, and prefaces do serve as so many sermons or recitals of history to hinder the people from forgetting those great truths, and to teach them the great honour and importance with which they ought to be regarded. Just as the orderly revolution of the natural year doth bring our earth in turn opposite to and in view of all the constellations that girdle the heavens, so by the wise ordering of our Church, and by a fitting analogy doth the revolution of the Christian year present for our contemplation in beautiful order and harmony all those glorious constellations of divine truth which are revealed to the eye of faith.-Professor Blunt. CHURCH.-Service Rendered by the Boileau says somewhere that the Church is a great thought which every man ought to study: it would be more practical to say that the Church is a great fact which every man ought to measure. Probably we Christians are too familiarized with the blessed presence of the Church to do justice to her as a world-embracing institution, and as the nurse and guardian of our moral and mental life. Like the air we breathe, she bathes our whole being with influences which we do not analyze; and we hold her cheap in proportion to the magnitude of her unostentatious service. The sun rises on us day by day in the heavens, and we heed not his surpassing beauty until our languid sense is roused by some observant astronomer or artist. The Christian Church pours even upon those of us who love her least, floods of intellectual and moral light; and yet it is only by an occasional intellectual effort that we detach ourselves sufficiently from the tender monotony of her influences, to understand how intrinsically extraordinary is the deable fact of her perpetuated existence and of her continuous expansion.-Canon Liddon. CHURCH.-The Services of the There is something so simple, so touching, so gentle, in the domestic character of our Church services, that a person who had weighed them well—a person who bere in mind how, for generations and generations, the Prayer-Book, like a ministering angel, had walked side by side with his fathers, would surely feel as if he were wronging their sacred memory lightly to leave the inheritance they had left him, and to seek for a home in some far land among aliens and strangers. -Dr. Faber. CHURCH-The Sexton of a Did you note the mien Of that self-solaced, easy-hearted churl, Death's hireling, who scoops out his neighbour's grave, As unconcerned as when he plants a tree?-W. Wordsworth. CHURCH-Simony in the Simony is the gangrene of the Church, which would soon eat out her very Hife, were it not for the timely interposition of her exalted Head. They, also, who purchase "the cure of souls," would perish with their gold, like Simon Magus, were it not for His divine forbearance. Yet they will ultimately "have their reward."-Dr. Davies. CHURCH.-A Sinner in a As a wen looks worse on the face of beauty, and a skull on a bank of snow, so a sinner in a holy Church, most uncomely and loathsome.-Dr. Guthrie. CHURCH-Sleepers in Here you fall asleep when you have most need to be waking. But if you were wise as Jonah, you would not sleep here in the sight of all the people, but would rather get you to sleep in some corner; for Jonah went under the hatches to sleep, and would not sleep in the sight of the mariners. You would all be found in the Church when the Lord cometh, but you would not be found sleeping in the Church. Ta are watched, though I see you not below; and none of you can steal a nap, and not be espied; but when your eyes be most shut, and see least, then most eyes be upon you. I marvel how you can sleep, having so many eyes looking on ya, so many clamours in your ears, and God Himself speaking to you. How kng shall I preach afore I can convert you from your sins, seeing I speak thus bag, and cannot convert you from sleeping? If you should see a traitor sleep en the hurdle, or if you should see men sleep with meat in their mouths, would you not marvel? Yet even so do you; while I denounce the great judgments of God against you, and while I am feeding some of you, you fall asleep and so I preach in vain. There is a country whereof it is said that it is night with them when it is day with us. I think that country be here: for how many are here which have lost their eyes and their ears since they came hither? If all of you were, as many of you be, asleep, the strangers which came hither to hear, would think you all dead, and that I preached your funeral sermon; therefore, for shame leave your sleeping!-H. Smith. CHURCH.-The Spire of a The tapering pyramid, Whose spiky top has wounded the thick cloud.-R. Blair. Does not such a tall and stately spire seem like a giant figure pointing upwards? Our worthy ancestors meant that every Church should direct our eyes to heaven, and thereby admonish us that the doctrine preached in the sanctuary below is the only way to the mansions above.-Scriver. In this way they went on and on, until at last the village lights appeared before them, and the spire of the Church cast a long reflection on the grave-yard grass, as if it were a dial (alas, the truest in the world !) marking, whatever light shone out of heaven, the flight of days and weeks, and years, by some new shadow on that solemn, hallowed ground.—Dickens. CHURCH.-A Splendid How very grand it is, and wonderful, Never have I beheld a Church so splendid! Such columns, and such arches, and such windows, CHURCH.-The Stability of the Still points the tower, and pleads the bell, The solemn arches breathe in stone, Window and wall have lips to tell The mighty faith of days unknown; Yea, flood, and breeze, and battle shock The changeless God's eternal fane !-Hawker. CHURCH.-The State of the This is the state of the Church militant:-she is like the ark floating upon the waters, like a lily growing among thorns, like the bush which burned with fire and was not consumed.-H. Smith. CHURCH.-The Study of the The great study of the Church of God on earth, is the study of God in Christ. -J. H. Evans. CHURCH.-The Submission of the "The Church," says St. Paul, "is subject unto Christ." The term-submission exactly corresponds to the great fact proclaimed by the Gospel. The Church was redeemed. She belongs to Him who redeemed her. She cannot have a will different from the divine will that saved her. Obedience is her lot, her blessed lot. That submission recognizes in Jesus Christ two sorts of authority, two distinct rights:-that of teaching by His Word, and that of guiding by His dispensations. In the Word of Christ the Church finds her rule of doctrine and of life, the solution of all doubts, the arbitrator in all differences. This is the first aspect of her submission. But the Church, moreover, submits to her Master's dispensations. Sure of being "loved with an everlasting love," and knowing that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against her," she receives, without distrust, whatever is sent to her from on high-the dew of heaven, or the rains of the tempest; the rays of the sun, or the flash of the thunderbolt. Dis. grace, persecutions by the sword, persecutions by calumny or by legal forms, all that appals the world, move not the Church, nor separate her from her Husband. Far from dreading these things, she would even wish for them, did she not fear lest in that eagerness there might be a commencement of insubordination, and did she not perceive that she must sometimes repress the sublime impatience she feels to suffer something for her Saviour. But she can submit, she can obey. And what mainly gives her submission is that she loves. Far, very far from her, be the submission of a slave! It is full of rebellion, and even its silence is murmuring! But the submission of one who loves is liberty. The Church is bound to obey, but she delights to obey. In her sight, her chains are ornaments. Her duties are her pleasures. What she gives she thinks she receives, and, in fact, does receive. While the world, emancipated from God, is in bondage, she, subject to God, is, by that very circumstance, free.-Professor Vinet. CHURCH.-The Subversion of the As true religion has been in every age substantially the same, so have its adversaries in every age assailed it with similar weapons. We cannot therefore be surprised if two of the most subtle, penetrating, and insidious of those weaponsreproach and slander-employed in ancient time, should be, in at least an equal degree, directed against the Gospel in our own. The day in which we live is "a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy;" wherever we turn, our eyes are shocked, our ears are insulted, and our hearts are grieved by the open taunts and scoffings of the ungodly and profane. Those who, like Sennacherib, defy the living God, no longer shelter themselves under secrecy and darkness, but pour forth their blasphemies in the broad light of day, and in the hearing of assembled multitudes: the walls of Zion are publicly menaced, and the dark designs of her assailants unblushingly and unreservedly proclaimed. The watch-word and warery of the enemies of all religion is-the subversion of the Church.-Canon Dale. CHURCH.-The Suffering State of the While Jesus Christ, the Head or Chief, reigns in the peace and glory of heaven, the body, which is the Church, remaining upon the earth, suffers upon the earth all that Jesus Christ would suffer if He were still upon the earth; for, having the same spirit, invoking His name, waging the same combat with error and sin, it must have the same enemies, encounter the same obstacles, arouse the same hostility, endure the same passion. It must endure all that, otherwise it is not the Church. The agony of Jesus Christ must continue in the person of the Church, otherwise there is no Church. The Head being living, the body must live, and living upon the earth, lead an earthly life; that is, suffer. This it is that is wanting, or that remains to be suffered, since Jesus Christ has suffered. Here is a sign that His work is being done upon the earth; here the flaming but glorious seal which the Master stamps on those who are His; here the mean which the Church has of corresponding with its Head.-Professor Vinet. CHURCH-Supplies Sought for the That is a wise Church which seeks to fill her pulpits with her noblest sons, the men of mightiest talents and most illustrious piety; and which in the management of spiritual matters takes a lesson from the son of Kish. "There was sore were, as many of you be, saleeg, the strangers which came hither to he think you all dead, and that I preached your feral sermon; therefore, leave your sleeping!-H. Smith Whose spiky top has wounded the thick cloud.-R. Blair. Does not such a tall and stately spire seem like a giant figur upwards? Our worthy ancestors meant that every Church should dire to heaven, and thereby admonish us that the doctrine preached in the below is the only way to the mansions above-Scriver. In this way they went on and on, until at last the village light before them, and the spire of the Church cast a long reflection on the grass, as if it were a dial (alas, the truest in the world!) marking, wha shone out of heaven, the fight of days and weeks, and years, by some n on that solemn, hallowed ground-Dickens. How very grand it is, and wonderful, Never have I beheld a Church so splendid! Such columns, and such arches, and such windows, CHURCH-The Stability of the Still points the tower, and pleads the bell, The solemn arches breathe in stone, Window and wall have lips to tell The mighty faith of days unknown; Yes, flood, and breeze, and battle shock The changeless God's eternal fane !-Hawker. CHURCH-The State of the This is the state of the Church militant:-she is like the ark the waters, like a lily growing among thorns, like the bush which fire and was not consumed.-H. Smith. CHURCH.-The Study of the The great study of the Church of God on earth, is the study of G -J. H. Evans. CHURCH-The Submission of the "The Church," says St. Paul, is subject unto Christ." Th mission exactly corresponds to the great fact proclaimed by the Church was redeemed. She belongs to Him who redeem have a will different from the divine will that any her blessed lot. That submission recognizes in two distinct rights: that of teaching dispensations. In the Word of m of life, the solution of all first aspect of her sul Master's dispensations |