I never think of you but with entire respect and admiration, and I never talked with you on any subject without gaining something,so far am I from venturing to think that I am entitled to think myself fonder of truth than you are. I am glad that you like the Sermons on Prophecy; I have not ventured to say that the principle is of universal application, but it is I think very general; and, in both the cases which you notice, I think it holds. Cyrus is said, in many commentaries, to be a type of Christ, by which I understand that the language applied to him is hyperbolical, and suits properly only Him who is the real deliverer of Israel, and conqueror of Babylon. And the passage about the "Virgin conceiving," &c., has a manifest historical meaning as applied to Isaiah's wife; the sign being one of time, that within the youth of an infant presently to be born, Syria and Israel should be overthrown. Emmanuel might improperly be the name of a common child, just as Jesus or Joshua was, but both apply to our Lord, and to Him only, in unexaggerated strictness. I have finished Vol. II. of the History, and am getting on with the new edition of Thucydides. The school is quite full, and I have been obliged to refuse several applications on that account. Our attempt to secure some of the benefits of the Eton system of tuition will come into practice as soon as the half-year begins. Wordsworth is and has been remarkably well this winter. A Miss Gillies came down here in the autumn to take his miniature, in which I think she has succeeded admirably. The state of the times is so grievous, that it really pierces through all private happiness, and haunts me daily like a personal calamity. But I suppose that as to causes and cure, we should somewhat differ, though in much surely we should agree. I wish your son John would come down to see me some day from Oxford. I should much wish to see him, and to observe how he is getting on.

CCXXVIII. TO SIR CULLING E. SMITH, BART.

(With reference to a correspondence in the Herts Reformer.)

Rugby, February 14, 1840.

I have two principal reasons which make me unwilling to affix my name to my letters in the Herts Reformer,―one, as I mentioned before, because I am so totally unconnected with the county, which to my feelings is a reason of great weight:my other reason concerns my own particular profession, not so

much as a clergyman but as a schoolmaster. I think if I wrote by name in a newspaper published in another county, I should be thought to be stepping out of the line of my own duties, and courting notoriety as a political writer. And this, I think, I am bound for the school's sake to avoid, unless there is a clear duty on the other side, which I own I cannot as yet perceive to exist. I think that your own case as a gentleman of independent rank and fortune, and directly connected with Hertfordshire, is very different from mine; for no one could charge you with stepping out of your own profession, or with interfering without any title to do so in the newspaper of another county. And as to the reasons which you urge, of setting an example of moderation in arguing on the question of Church Establishments, it seems to me that the mischief of our newspapers mainly arises from the virulent language which men use while writing anonymously, and that as far as example goes, this is better reproved by temperate writings which are also anonymous. I suppose that no man, writing with his name, would allow himself to write in the style which newspaper writers often use; if you and I write with our names, it would be no wonder at all if we should write moderately; but if Augur and F. H. observe the courtesies and the charities of life, which their incognito might enable them to cast aside if they would, it appears to me to be likely, as far as their letters are read, to have a salutary influence, because their moderation could scarcely be ascribed to anything but to their real disapprobation of scurrility and unfairness. After all, my incognito is only a very slight veil, and I am more anxious to preserve it in form than in reality. I have no objection to be known as the author of my Letters, but I would neither wish to attach my name to them, nor to be mentioned by name in the Reformer, for the reasons which I have given above. I trust that you will not take it amiss that I still adhere to my former resolution. May I add at the same time, that I am much obliged to you for the kind expressions in your letter, and I trust that you will have no cause to recall your testimony to the respectfulness of my language in any of my future Letters. I do respect sincerely every man who writes with a real desire to promote the cause of Christ's kingdom.

CCXXIX. *TO H. FOX, ESQ.

Rugby, February 21, 1840.

I am well persuaded that to a good man with regard to his choice of one amidst several lines of duty, "Sua cuique Deus fit dira cupido." It is a part of God's Providence that some men are made to see strongly the claims of one calling, others those of another. If, therefore, a man tells me that he feels bound to go out as a Missionary to India, I feel that I ought not to grudge to India what God seems to will for her. A very old friend of mine, who has been for some years superintendent of the Missions at Madras, is coming home this spring for his health, hoping to go out again in the autumn; if your purpose is fixed, I should like you to see him, for he would counsel you well as to the manner of carrying it into effect; but on the previous question itself,-to go to India or not, his judgment must be biassed, for he himself left a very large field of ministerial duty here, to go out to India. But whether you go to India, or to any other foreign country, the first and great point, I think, is to turn your thoughts to the edification of the Church already in existence, that is, the English or Christian societies as distinct from the Hindoos. Unless the English and the half-caste people can be brought into a good state, how can you get on with the Hindoos? Again, I am inclined to think that greater good might be done by joining a young English settlement, than by missionary work amongst the heathen. Every good man going to New Zealand, or to Van Diemen's Land, not for the sake of making money, is an invaluable element in those societies; and remember that they, after all, must be, by and by, the great missionaries to the heathen world, either for God or for the Devil.

But still, do not lightly think that any claims can be greater upon you than those of this Church and people of England. It is not surely to the purpose to say that there are ten thousand clergymen here, and very few in India. Do these ten thousand clergymen all, or even the greater part of them, appreciate what they have to do? Is not the mass of evil here, greater a thousand times in its injurious effects on the world at large, than all the idolatry of India? and is it less dangerous to the souls of those concerned in it? Look at the state of your own county"; and does not that cry out as loud as India, nothwithstanding its bishop and its

a Durham.

g`ba sals' And remember-that the Apostles did indeed, or sår one of them did. spread the Gospel over many provinces de Sonan Empire-but it was necessary that it should have

1. Pasea ace; not that this diffusion was to go on univerNough the old Churches might be grievously g 2 đả đề those who were plunging into heathen and nazad Autizes 2 make nominal converts.

Su serà às no man can advise you; you may do good by
NZ STIDER —you will, I doubt not, serve him every-

you feel to be your particular call, you must

But do not decide hastily, for it is an important presiva, kad dva ge and then regret it, time and opportunities You know that F. Newman went out as a Missionary JANA AND Med ning that he had judged his calling sta, of rare, be at all times glad to advise you to gover ander by letter or personally.

11

TIIL TO THE SAME.

Rugby, March 30, 1840.

nga love left your last letter so long une has been even more than usually engaged. Pau i mur best seems to be to the work of a Missionary na à De man to dissuade you from it. It is a $ most "gernet calling, and though to my own are achers even more important, yet I fully

that, by our different impulses, all the **$'c's and should be supplied with labourers. Tula sill remember that the great work and panty Christian Churches of whites and N Dx Deler Tacker would tell you, and all Achor TROP WYOR? polerens an le relied on. These must be the Marcus 2 whid mhodhat's from the natives will continually join pay and men, a these decome more numerous and more respectaw Chewer the oste system is an insuperable difficulty; you

** man a fare at his old connexions, and to become intheir eyes, and yet have no living Church to offer him, kep de cul neive thers and mothers, and brethren and sisters, de,, a hundred fold." Individual preaching amongst the Hindoos, without having a Church to which to invite them, seems

to me the wildest of follies. Remember how in every place, Paul made the soßes the foundation of his Church, and then the idolatrous heathens gathered round these in more or less numbers.

Again, if you go out to India, you must be clear as to questions of Church government and the so called Apostolical Succession, which there become directly practical questions. Are you to look upon Lutheran ordinations, and Baptists' or Independent baptisms, as valid or invalid? Are the members of non-episcopal Churches your brethren or not? In matters of doctrine, an opinion, however unimportant, is either true or false; and if false, he who holds it is in error, although the error may be so practically indifferent as to be of no account in our estimate of the men. But in matters of government, I hold that there is actually no right, and no wrong. Viewed in the large, as they are seen in India, and when abstracted from the questions of particular countries, I hold that one form of Church government is exactly as much according to Christ's will as another; nay, I consider such questions as so indifferent, that, if I thought the government of my neighbour's Church better than my own, I yet would not, unless the case were very strong, leave my Church for his, because habits, associations, and all those minor ties which ought to burst asunder before a great call, are yet of more force, I think, than a difference between Episcopacy and Presbytery, unless one be very good of its kind, and the other very bad. . . . . . However, whether you think with me or not, the question at any rate is one of importance to a man going as Missionary to India. Let me hear from you again when you can.

CCXXXI. TO CHEVALIER BUNSEN.

(Then Prussian Minister at Berne.)

Rugby, February 25, 1840.

It rejoices me indeed to resume my communication with you, and it is a comfort to me to think that you are at least on our side of the Alps, and on a river which runs into our own side, in the very face of Father Thames. May God's blessing be with you and yours in your new home, and prosper all your works, public and private, and give you health and strength to execute them, and to see their fruits beginning to show themselves. I am going on in my accustomed way, in this twelfth year of my life at Rugby, with all about me, thank God, in good health.

L L