him that is raised from the dead, him that hath fulfilled all righteousness, and paid the ransom as my Surety. I see the Gospel way of salvation is the sweetest way that ever a poor soul travelled in. It is not fear but love that now obliges the soul to obedience; and seeing it is the obedience of love, the believer cannot but obey with joy, and cheerfulness, and liberty of soul, rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God."

While he thus renounced every legal principle and hope, he earnestly sought, and in a high degree attained, a strong, assured, confiding, and appropriating faith. His ardent desire of assurance is thus expressed :

"I see myself standing on the brink of an endless state. I see the uncertainty of my time; I know not when the Lord shall call. My soul is panting and thirsting after the Lord. I long to be filled with God, and to be in readiness to depart. I see that I have a great God to do with after death, by whose sentence I must stand or fall through eternity. I long to be assured of his love, and to have the full assurance of faith; and I cannot rest till I attain to a well-grounded hope of glory."

The expressions of assurance possessed are often blended with the most explicit appropriation.

"P. July 24, 1722. This night, in secret prayer, and in family prayer, the Lord loosed my bonds, and enlarged my heart; and the way he did it was by helping me to appropriate and apply Christ to my soul, upon the ground of the free offer and gift that he has made of him to me, in particular, in the Gospel. Oh the little word my is a sweet word to my soul. I was made to say, my Saviour, my Redeemer, my King, my Priest, and my Prophet. He is mine, because God has given him to me; and I cannot please God better than by taking him to myself; and, accordingly, I take him with heart and hand, and I bless the Lord that ever gave him. O Lord, keep me at My Lord, and my God,' and never let me quit it, through unbelief. And let me never quit contending for the appropriating act of faith. I bless the Lord that has honoured me, in any measure, to contend for it; and to contribute to set it in any light, either among Ministers or Christians."

We select the following examples of this humble believer's ardent affection to his Saviour, for it is an essential character of true faith, that it worketh by love :

"A sight of Christ, as God-man, just swallows up my spirit-draws out my heart, so that I have not a heart behind. He carries away the flower of the affections, when he presents himself to the soul. O he makes me to give my heart, my soul, my body, my wife, my children, my servants, my friends, my estate, to him; and I can refuse him nothing. When he shows himself, he makes me to lay all down at his blessed feet; and O I love to give Christ all."

"O he is wonderful, and I admire his love, and adore him, and shall adore him through an endless eternity. I find love burning in my heart towards this lovely One. This fire can never be quenched; for he hath said that he will not quench the smoking flax,' but will cherish and encourage it, till it become a flaming and a burning lamp, to burn in heaven for ever and ever. Thanks be to God, who has kept his love alive in

my heart, when I thought it was quite drowned with the floods of sin, corruption, and temptation."-"O for grace to manifest to the world, and to my own soul, the reality of my love, by a holy, tender, humble, and circumspect walk before him, in the land of the living."

The book, which will form a valuable addition to Congregational libraries, we sincerely recommend to the perusal of every practical Christian. For the sake of our readers we shall continue our extracts in the next Number.

*PRESBYTERIAN REVIEW AND RELIGIOUS JOURNAL.

We have read the first two numbers of this periodical with much pleasure, and if not also with profit, it is our own fault. Its title "Presbyterian" is, to our eyes, especially pleasing; not because it is our own; nor because, for aught we know, we have been the first to apply it to a religious journal; but because such a work, conducted with talent, and in perfect accordance with the glorious reformation principles of the Church of Scotland, will do much to rescue the name of "Presbyterian" from the odium attached to it in England; where, until lately, "Presbyterianism" has been identified with Arianism or Socinianism. This popular misapprehension and slander, have arisen from the melancholy circumstance of some of the original English Presbyterians, in prominent situations, having turned Arians or Socinians in sentiment, and independent in government; yet retaining the name of Presbyterian for the sake of the endowment, which they have been thus enabled with or without law, and against the will or purpose of the donors, to divert into their own coffers, spoliating the Orthodox Pastors and people for whom the endowments were intended-a practice of which we know at least one instance in Irelandevery Orthodox Minister, of every new erection in the Synod of Ulster, being entitled to £5 per annum, for five years. But no Minister, of the Synod of Ulster, so far as we know, has ever received a penny of it. Who are the heirs-at-law of the trustees? Who received the income during the last thirty years? To whom are the mesne rates legally due"? On all these questions we have our own opinions, and shall, perhaps, say more of them hereafter.-To return to the Review. We beg to call the attention of Scripture critics to No. I. art. V. on 1 Tim. iii. 16. in which the arguments of Dr. Henderson, in defence of the common reading, are well examined, and a still more luminous and conclusive statement of the truth made by the reviewer himself. Though we do not say he has silenced the Socinians-for even though vanquished they can argue-we yet think he has settled the question. Our limits will not permit us to add more than decidedly to recommend the work to every one who, from inclination, is disposed,—or from want of time for reading, is compelled,-to take the short and pleasing path to knowledge, that is furnished by a critical Review.

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

ORDINATION.-On the 13th September, the Rev. D. Jeffry was ordained to the pastoral charge of the new congregation of Grey-Abbey. The services were conducted by the Rev. Messrs. Henderson, M'Auley, and Morgan.

ORTHODOX PRESBYTERIAN.

No. XXVI.

NOVEMBER, 1831. VOL. III.

NEW SYSTEM OF NATIONAL EDUCATION, VIZ. Destruction of the Kildare-Place Society-expulsion of the Bible from Schools-deceptive recognition of Presbyterianism attempted Establishment of Popery by Act of Parliament: the whole uttering a loud call to every honest, consistent, and determined Protestant to examine his danger, and stand upon his post, for the defence of religion.

HAD not the word of God assured us, that there is a time when men cry 66 peace, peace, while there is no peace;" and when they repose in the possession of fancied safety, till "sudden destruction cometh upon them, and they shall not escape," we had not ventured to stir up or alarm our readers with the foregoing momentous title. There are bold men, we doubt not, who will despise our ideas of danger; there are witlings, we doubt not, who will laugh our opinions to scorn; there are trimmers and timeservers who will accuse us of rashness; there are liberals and theorists who will charge us with narrowness of mind and bigotry of principles ;-above all, there are calm, contented men, who being, from circumstances or neglect, utterly ignorant of the matter, will refuse to lend attention or credence to our warnings, till the threatened evil is converted into reality, and the iron heel of Popish supremacy tramples upon the neck of prostrate Protestantism.

With politics we take no concern: they are either above us or below us. We are humble men; and the political concerns of the world are generally as far above our ken, as the speculations of the philosopher are above the comprehension of the peasant. We are, at least we should be, Christian men; and the views, and parties, and interests of politicians are as much beneath our concern, as the baubles of a little child are beneath the care of a man. We do, therefore, in what we are now to offer, utterly disclaim all design of intermeddling with the political affairs

D

of the Government; but when Government interfere with religion, we consider watchfulness a duty; and when the interference seems to us calculated to do most serious injury, we lift up our voice to warn the Protestant, but especially the Presbyterian-Protestant, people of the danger with which their religion and their privileges are threatened. We feel the more anxious to press this subject upon public attention, because by some means, and, we suspect for some purposes, the public, especially the Presbyterian public, have been kept in profound ignorance of the contemplated measures. A favoured few, who have access to the votes of Parliament, may be acquainted with the mat. ter; but the public, in general, are as ignorant of the plan proposed in the Parliament of England, as they are of the proceedings of the Parliament of Tahiti, in the South Seas. We feel more anxious still to press the matter upon public attention, because (alas! that it should be true) the Presbyterians of Ireland have not a single Presbyterian Representative in the British Parliament; have not a man who personally knows their condition, studies their interests, coneurs in their religious principles, or feels involved in their public fortunes. Friends they have, and they are grateful to them; and were it not inviduous, they would. single out names that are written in their hearts; still it is melancholy, that the great body of Protestants in Ulster should, in religious sympathies, be without one single representative in the councils of the nation. And just be. cause they are unrepresented, we are now about to call upon the people to examine their danger, and represent themselves. It is our business now to show what the danger is-it is then for the people themselves to lay their solemn opinions before Parliament; and whether they, will hear, or whether they will reject our petitions, we shall, have one consolation-we have done our duty like free men and Christians.

As we are earnest to bring the whole matter before the eye of the community, we shall state the facts of the case in the following consecutive order :

1. A commission of education inquiry was appointed by Government, in the year 1824, who continued their sittings during two or three years, examined, upon oath, the clergy of different denominations, agents of societies, masters of schools, and professors of colleges, and pub. lished their minute researches in nine folio volumes.

2. In the year 1828, a committee of the Commons was appointed to examine these volumes, and report to the House. This report, when drawn up, consisted of six pages, and was submitted to the House, during the unavoidable absence of one of the commissioners of education inquiry, in whom the Protestants of the kingdom reposed their confidence, and though, as we have reason to believe and know, he had earnestly requested it might be delayed till his return.

3. Upon this report, a Bill has been introduced into the House, read pro forma, and printed, in order to afford time and opportunity for the consideration of such a momentous subject.

4. But though printed, it remains to the public a profound secret; at least a thing generally unknown. It has now been nearly two months issued, yet until last week, we were ignorant of its nature and contents. We inspected it for a few minutes, but could not obtain it for deliberate examination. In Belfast, amongst the parliamentary papers of the Library and News-Room, we have searched for it in vain; and at this moment, though most anxious to obtain a sight of it for quotation, we know not where that sight may be gained.

And it is peculiarly worthy of remark, that though the Moderator of the Synod of Ulster is expressly nominated a commissioner in the proposed Bill, he has yet, so far as we know or believe, received not a single copy, has not been favoured with a hint of his contemplated honours, nor been enabled to lay the matter before his brethren for their opinion or advice. It remained for us, as it were by accident, to be favoured with the discovery, and to awaken public attention to some notion of their impending danger.

5. The first effect of this Bill will be to annihilate the Kildare-Place Society. A Society against which no Romanist could ever establish a substantive charge; a Society which had the merit of pleasing the Protestant population generally, and to which the Presbyterian people were peculiarly attached. But the Society, and the Protestant community at large, and the Presbyterian community in particular, must all be sacrificed to conciliate the good will of the Romish Hierarchy.

6. And what think you, friends, do the Report and Bill purpose to set up in the stead of the Kildare-Place Society? You shall hear. They purpose to establish a new Board