faith;' one who, in the integrity of his heart, gallantly declared, that, if his people wished, he could retire into obscurity, he could even lay his head upon a block, but he had not courage to break the solemn oath that fatal experience had taught Britons to administer at coronation. Secure in such a pledge, which never was forfeited, (for it is worthy of remark, that the evil came not to pass in his days,) we rested upon our oars, we relaxed in our vigilance, we forgot that the vine and the fig-tree, under which we sat without fear, had yielded no shade to our fathers! is it too figurative to say that they had furnished only the stake and the faggot to which they were bound, and by which they were consumed, for having dared to seek shelter beneath its branches? We forgot that while we thought this vine, and this fig-tree were overshadowing the whole realm, a work of destruction might be carrying on at its root! But England's foes and, what is worse, the foes of England's faith, have aroused us from this lethargy to a sense of our danger. Deeply humbled for past unfaithfulness, we will, if needs be, again contend earnestly for "the faith once delivered to the saints." We will have recourse to our fathers' weapons-they are not carnal but spiritual; we will buckle on their armour,-laid aside though it may have been, its temper is unchanged, it has accumulated no rust. The shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the sword of the Spirit, are still proof against all attacks. Our fathers' God on our side, his word in our hands, what need we fear? We shall either achieve a victory, or, if He see fit, swell the ranks of the noble army of martyrs. But I am not anticipating evil, we hope better things; we have, thank God! a Protestant king upon the throne, a Protestant succession to look to; our bibles are our own, and our cause is the Lord's. With you I hail the restoration to light of the dustcovered annals of Foxe, as a proof that the Protestant feeling that calls him forth, (at the bidding, as it were, of Rome,) has only slept in our land. We will read his Acts and Monuments, we will read what those, who have been forgotten in our security, have suffered; we will read, and, by God's blessing, we will understand, for what they suffered; and surely the determination of each heart will, in God's strength, be Britons never will be slaves' again to the Pope of Rome! Christian mothers! are you alive to your responsibility? Train up your infant charge as Protestant . subjects. The earliest period cannot be fixed, at which the young mind is capable of receiving a bias, right or wrong. To you is necessarily entrusted the important task of sowing the first seed. Look that it be good. Be not behind those who openly boast that their children imbibe, even in the nursery, the liberal principles of the age. Teach them betimes the history of their country, and especially from the period when the light of the Reformation gilds its pages. Teach them to draw from our national deliverances the same inference that Manoah's wife drew from her experience of God's dealings with her. And may the divine blessing rest upon your instructions! A PROTESTANT. TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN MADAM, I WAS Somewhat startled on reading a paper in your December number, entitled' China, India, and the East; and as the soundness of the views contained in the latter part of it appears to me very questionable, I venture to transmit to you the following remarks on the subject. It is with some hesitation that I differ from one who is so evidently actuated by zeal. for the spread of the Redeemer's kingdom; but on consulting the only infallible guide, the word of God, I cannot see any ground for supposing that the work of an 'evangelist,' (that is, a professed teacher of the gospel,) is in any manner suited to a female. The whole tenor of scripture leads me to believe that woman's path, with very few exceptions, is intended to be a retiring, unobtrusive one, and that, when unsupported by a husband's countenance, missionary labours are out of her sphere of duty. I am very far from asserting that single as well as married women ought not zealously to do their utmost to win souls to Christ, but then it must be in a private, not a public capacity, in their own neighbourhood, among the poor and ignorant, who are, alas! but too numerous in every corner of even our highly-favoured country. Because ours is nominally a Christian land, is there therefore nothing to be done among our own R country women? Do not facts too painfully prove that the great majority are, in truth, but baptized heathens, having nothing of Christian but the name and fearful responsibility? (see Matt. xi. 21—24.) Were each of my Christian sisters to do what lay in her power, to proclaim "the unsearchable riches of Christ" to her poor neighbours, I believe she would be acting more in accordance with the precepts of the gospel, than were she to throw off that" shamefacedness" which ought to adorn her, and sally forth alone to distant lands, as a missionary; thereby shocking the deep-rooted prejudices of those she most wishes to conciliate. I think the prayerful consideration of the following and similar texts of scripture, will in general lead to a view of the subject such as I have taken. 1 Cor. xiv. 34, 35. 1 Tim. ii. 9—12. Titus ii. 4, 5. 1 Pet. iii. 1, 2, 5. These passages, it may be said, are spoken chiefly with reference to the duty of wives towards their husbands; they are, however, quite conclusive, to my mind, with regard to the place which women in general ought to occupy in the church. There have been, and still are, "Mothers in Israel," who, like Deborah of old, are honoured as instruments of public usefulness in the great Redeemer's hand; but these appear to me exceptions, not the general rule; and I cannot but think that an exhortation to women, to cast off the retiring modesty of their sex, and to put themselves forward even in so good a cause as the conversion of the heathen, is likely to prove anything but beneficial to them. It is the opinion of one “whose praise is in all the churches," and whose name would carry much weight with it, did I feel at liberty to mention it, that women in the present day take much too prominent a part in religious societies, &c. If you are kind enough, Madam, to give the above remarks a place in your useful periodical, you will much oblige, G. H. G. THE CHURCH. All THE CHURCH visible, in the enlarged sense. the people on earth who are called out of the world to the worship of the true God; as the Israelitish church in the wilderness, Acts vii. 38; and in Judea till the coming of Messiah, Psalm cxiv. 2. THE CHURCH visible, in the restricted sense. Congregations of people who assemble to worship God according to a prescribed form, and under certain rules of church government; as the Episcopal Church, of which the Roman is a corrupted branch, the Presbyterian, Lutheran, Calvinistic, Independent, Secession, Baptist, and Methodist churches. THE CHURCH invisible, in the enlarged sense. The church militant here upon earth, and the church triumphant in glory. THE CHURCH militant comprises that nation, of which Christ is the King; that flock, of which Christ is the Shepherd; that body, of which Christ is the Head; that army, of which Christ is the Captain; those children, of whom Christ is the Father; those servants of whom Christ is the Lord and Master; those branches, of which Christ is the Living Vine. |