many congregations of Presbyterians, not at all mixed up with those who were members of the three denominations in London, of whom the great majority have become Socinians,-but connected with the established Church of Scotland, or with the Secession Church, and holding the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel. We believe we are warranted in affirming, that both the ministers and people connected with these congregations received many marks of favour from his lordship: and that although, of course, he would have been delighted to have witnessed a perfect union in all respects with the Established Church, yet he regarded them with an eye of brotherly affection.

It is, perhaps, well for the prosperity of the Church of England, and for religion in the country at large, that those who are exalted to her high places should be men of different characters in non-essentials: it is well that there should be upon the episcopal bench the deep theologian, the profound scholar, those whose life has been spent in academical pursuits, as well as the man whose early manhood has been passed in the field of pastoral labour. We only pray, that all those who are in authority over us in ecclesiastical matters, may be men of sound scriptural views, of deep personal piety, and of an ardent zeal in the cause of the Redeemer. The Church of England is conceived by some to be now in a dangerous state; we confess that we have no fears for her safety. We acknowledge that her enemies are active; but we perceive that her friends are active also. Never, perhaps, was she more distinguished for zeal in her members, lay and clerical; for devotedness in her pastors, whether bishops, priests, or deacons. But our help cometh not from man. We desire to look for safety to the arm of that Jehovah, who is able to cast down all enemies under our feet. We rest on the conviction, that God is in the midst of her; therefore she shall not be removed: God shall help her, and that right early-" The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge." If the billows of persecution rage around her, and the storm causes her to be afraid, let her not merit the rebuke, "Why art thou fearful, O thou of little faith?" Let her recollect, that there is one that sitteth above the water-flood, and that One, the omnipotent Jehovah, who remaineth a King for evermore, even through all generations.

A SABBATH AT BOULOGNE.* My first Sunday, spent on the Continent, was at Boulogne-sur-Mer, a town which can hardly be called French, inasmuch as more welldressed English persons are seen in the streets than those of the other nation. I was sufficiently aware of my situation, to feel that the bells which sounded during the early morning from the different towers and steeples were not for me; they, therefore, produced no further effect, than to remind me of what was then passing in my dear native country. Proceeding to meet my family in the room

Abridged from an interesting little work, entitled "Sabbaths on the Continent." By Mrs. Sherwood. London, Thomas Ward and Co. 1835.

in which we breakfasted, I was unable to hear their greetings by reason of the stunning sound of drums, accompanied with clarionets, hautboys, and other martial instruments. I was informed by the waiter, that this day being Sunday, was the day appointed for the grand parade of the national guard; and I was pressed by my informant to take my place among the spectators. The person who spoke to me was a fine boy, perhaps of fifteen, and his accent, for he addressed me in English, was perfectly pure.

"You are English," I answered, “ and yet you recommend me to employ my Sunday in a way so totally different to that in which it was observed by the Christians of old, of whom it was said, 'They met on the Lord's day.'

The boy looked at me, and made no answer; on which I questioned him respecting his parents and present situation, and found that he was the descendant of a respectable family in Kent.

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"And have you so forgotten your native land," I said, as not to know that there is a day especially devoted to the service of God?"

He was affected with the interest thus taken in him, and confessed, with tears in his eyes, that he saw and heard nothing but evil in the place where he then was-that he never entered a place of worship-that he never read the Scriptures-and oh! sad to say, that the worst examples were given him by his own countrymen, several of whom had sat up gambling all night. He had been a year in this situation; and no one, of all the many English who visited the hotel, had spoken a word of Christian kindness to him.

When we had breakfasted, we inquired for the Protestant churches, and set out at the hour appointed. In our walk we observed that all the shops were open, and that the people were better dressed, and the streets fuller, than usual. Women were walking in groups; men were lounging at every corner of the streets; every window was opened, and the daughters of superior families had their necks stretched out from the upper ranges. Here and there, in a niche of some dirty wall, were forsaken and dusty images of the Virgin, sometimes decorated with a garland, as an emblem of her sovereignty in heaven; and sometimes being thickly involved with the web of the spider; neither could it be seen that any one individual ever stopped to make a single genuflection, or to pronounce a single Ave-Maria. A few old women, and now and then, though rarely, a younger one or two, appeared among the other passers-by, having their livre d'ordre, or

mass-book, in their hands, proceeding towards the churches.

So we passed on, and coming to the Protestant church we found it closed. The doors were shut; the neighbours knew nothing about the service, and we could obtain no information. After dinner we again sought this place of worship; and they only who have been in foreign and infidel lands, can have an idea how bitter it is, where a hope of a sweet word of divine consolation has been excited, to meet only with cold, dull morality, or at best a garbled statement of Christian doctrine. I will add no more: we left the Protestant church, and turned under the shade of many trees, and descended into certain narrow lanes leading into a valley of great beauty.

On the heights above us, on the opposite side of the ravine, was a lofty pillar, serving as a beacon, and built by Buonaparte, on occasion of his intended triumph over England. The hill before us was steep, and the evening sultry; we, however, began to ascend from the bottom of the valley, and turned into a shady walk. Presently we saw before us a small house where beer was sold, and on our right a large garden cut into alleys; on our left was a terrace encircled by plane-trees, which included a considerable area; within were benches, and persons smoking and drinking; and on the left of the house beyond the garden, another terrace, surrounded by trees, where a company of the lowest orders of men and women were dancing.

Leaving this melancholy scene to us, while one of our party inquired whether this dancing was worse than the drinking in publichouses on the Lord's day in England, we conversed together on the privileges and blessings of the Sabbath, and pursued our walk along an open road, crowded with persons running to and fro in search of pleasure, and bordered with houses and gardens for Sunday entertainments, into a shady path, where suddenly we beheld the summits of tomb-stones and black crosses elevating themselves above a wall or wooden fence.

It

This burying-ground was a new one. had been lately enlarged. The part at which we had arrived was devoted to the Roman Catholic inhabitants of the town, whilst the more distant belonged to the Protestants. Having found entrance into that of the Roman Catholic, although with some difficulty, for the way was choked with briars and rank grass, we saw an amazing number of memorials of the dead, pyramids, and obelisks, and coffin-shaped sarcophagi; with urns of marble, over which depended the elegant branches of the weeping willow, and various crosses of different materials, some being simply black

with lines of white, others being of marble, and others gilt; and on the tombs were various devices indicative of mortality. But the inscriptions were what we chiefly sought; and what were these? They vaunted the virtues of the deceased; to wit, the goodness of a father, the perfections of a wife, the obedience of a daughter, the honour of a son; they spoke of the tears of friends, of long regrets, of blighted hopes, of bloom destroyed, of sudden woe: but where religion was alluded to, it was in that dark and doubtful spirit which always attends a false religion, accompanied with frequent entreaties for the prayers of the living in behalf of the departed soul,-that soul which, if not redeemed already, is for ever lost. "And is this all which the covenant of works (for the Roman Catholic religion is nothing more, in fact, than another exhibition of the covenant of works) can do for these poor mourners?" we said; "can they not trust their dying friend, in perfect hope, to that God, and those saints in whom they pretend to place their trust in life? Do they still require the aid of man to patch the ragged garment wherein they trust to be received above?" And we turned away from this sad scene of earthly woe and spiritual gloom, towards the Protestant buryingground, where rest many of the English who have died at Boulogne. Here the emblems of superstition had disappeared; the cross and the tablets demanding the prayers of the living were, indeed, not to be seen; but the vain boastings of the tomb were quite as eloquent here as in the former cemetery; and in one instance only did we observe the proper expressions of Christian humility and Christian confidence. There might be others (we will not pass so severe a censure as to say there were not), but we did not see them; and with a sense of sadness not easily to be shaken off, we turned in silence towards our hotel. It was evening when we arrived; the air was hot; and, as we sat near our open window, a new scene of vanity forced itself on our notice. Our street was particularly busy; well-dressed persons of all sexes and ages, rich and poor, were all pressing on, with a glee, an animation, which we could not comprehend, till informed that it was the hour of the comédie, and that the representation was about to commence: and it is Sunday evening," added our informant, "when the theatres are always particularly crowded."

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this but the breaking up of the theatre, and | the return of the company through the streets? Neither was the street clear and quiet again till the midnight hour had struck.

Thus terminated the Sabbath at Boulogne. And may the God of all mercies have pity on a country in which the Lord's day is thus systematically devoted to evil purposes; and may it be put into the hearts of all those Christian Protestants, of whatever denomination they may be, who visit the continent, to shew that respect for the Lord's day, which every person must feel who has the smallest regard for the cause of religion.*

Sermon.

NICODEMUS.

ST. JOHN, iii. 1, 2.

"There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him."

THE public ministrations of our blessed Lord, while they attracted the notice of the multitudes who flocked to listen to his discourses -to witness the miracles which he wrought upon others--or themselves to be benefited by his healing power, excited no ordinary degree of jealousy among the chief priests and rulers of the people. They were doubtless fully aware of the expectation, at this time so prevalent not only in Judea but throughout the East, that a remarkable personage was to appear. They may have been themselves awaiting the advent of their long-looked-for Messiah. But what was there in the son of Joseph and Mary that could lay claim to this exalted dignity? Surely it was at variance with reason and common sense, that one so humble in birth, so lowly in condition, so abject when tried by the world's estimate, could be that Prophet who was to be raised up, to whom they were to hearken; that Messiah whom they expected to appear amongst them seated on the clouds of heaven. It was their grand object, therefore, to refer the mighty works of our Lord to some imposture, which they could not discover; and whatever might be their individual conviction, to represent the whole circumstances connected with his ministry as unworthy the notice of men raised above the ignorance and credulity of the common people. Hence we find them asking the officers who were sent to take him, but who, instead of so doing, returned with the answer, "Never man spake as this man,"-" Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed on him?" Notwithstanding this apparent in

See additional remarks on this subject in No. XI.

difference, no doubt could exist in their mind as to his being an extraordinary individual, and endowed with extraordinary gifts; and even of his most inveterate enemies-and such were the Pharisees-not a few must have been anxious to have some intercourse with him, that they might at least have their curiosity gratified, and might be enabled to form some estimate of his character; for it was fully manifest that he was a man approved of God by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God wrought by him.

The text records the visit of one of these Pharisees to our Lord. The statement of the evangelist is at once instructive and interesting; and on further directing our attention to it, we may advert,

I. To the peculiar circumstances under which Nicodemus is introduced to our notice by the evangelist.

II. To the important testimony which was borne by him to the dignity of our Lord's character.

III. To the caution which he manifested, that his visits to our Lord should be in secret.

And may that heavenly Saviour, whom we acknowledge to have been " a teacher come from God," be graciously pleased, by his Spirit, to assist our meditation on this important portion of the sacred word.

I. Nicodemus appears to have been a person of considerable consequence among the Jews. He is stated to have been "a ruler ;" a member of the sanhedrim, or chief council of the nation; and from the conversation which took place with our blessed Lord, we are led to the conclusion that he was of a

highly cultivated intellect, as well as ofexalted rank. He is addressed as a "master in Israel;" and our Lord expresses some astonishment that a person of such attainments should not be able to comprehend the force of his reasoning on this important subject of regeneration. The evangelist does not state what effect this conversation produced upon the mind of Nicodemus; whether he was led to understand the import of that radical change of the natural heart to which the Saviour alluded, and which was described as a new birth: whether he fully comprehended the love of God the Father, in giving his only begotten Son, "that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life."

Though we cannot suppose that his mind was fully enlightened on these particulars, it is obvious that a considerable impression was made upon him; for he is again introduced to our notice in the seventh chapter of this gospel, as speaking in favour of our Lord, when the other members of the council of the synagogue would have condemned him. He appeals to the law, as being utterly at variance