be entitled "Minor Morals." I wish they had gone on with their communications, for which everyday life furnishes innumerable subjects. I will adduce the familiar example of answering letters. Write twenty letters, half of them on pressing business of your own, half on mere trifles concerning your correspondents: the result will be, that the latter half will be answered as nearly as possible by return of post; but the acknowledgment of the former will depend much upon the character of your correspondents. If they are statesmen, or men of business, or what is called highly-bred gentlemen, or persons who, if not highly bred as gentlemen, are instructed in the school of Christian courtesy, taught to feel for others, to weep with those that weep, and rejoice with those that rejoice; to sacrifice a little of their own ease, or time, or pleasure for the benefit or the gratification of others; these also will be duly answered. But not so if addressed to those who are neither governed by these worldly principles of good breeding, nor the higher principles of Christian sympathy; to a lady who is so busy with her new flounce, or a poet with his own verses, or a scholar with a Greek scholium, or a hobbyist with his hobby, or any man with his own schemes and projects, however good and important they may be, that he feels no interest in the concerns of others. some of these cases, the letters will never be noticed at all, and in others only noticed some months afterwards, when your correspondent wishes to write to you on a trifling matter of his own, to which he demands an immediate reply; just adding, in a postscript, "I have three or four letters of yours which I ought to have answered, but have been much engaged; and I have only time at present to trouble you with the above inquiry. Excuse

haste."

In

I have called this a point of "minor morals;" but in truth, as

respects the disposition of mind, nothing is trivial that indicates the unchristian predominance of self, and the feeble influence exerted by the love of our neighbour. A man cannot do every thing, write every thing, answer every thing; neither the Divine injunctions of Christ, nor the worldly maxims of Chesterfield, require this; but if your friend can write four sides of paper on six points which you adverted to respecting himself, he might have found time to add four words about the seventh, which concerned you. A statesman would have done so, if only to say, "I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter:" a busy merchant would have done it, if only to say yes or no: a polished gentleman would have done it from self-respect, and to satisfy your feelings: what then but sordid, vulgar selfishnesss, culpable indolence, or deplorable contractedness of mind, prevents a lady who has nothing to do, or a country curate, or a person in private life, devoting five minutes to your service? I shall have done good by this paper, if only among the many thousands of your readers, some half dozen should determine to rise an hour earlier than usual the morning after reading my paper, to discharge at once their writing-desk and their conscience of their culpable arrears.

the trouble to inform our court calendarians, that the clergy are not, or ought not to be, stageplayers; or that if they "perform Divine service," it is before God, and not before men; or, to stoop to the lowest argument, that if religion is to be thus made a puppet-shew, our dignitaries must at least stipulate, as gentlemen, to "perform ' only before his Majesty in person, not before his housemaids and grooms. But the subject is too serious to trifle with. Such announcements shew too lamentably how common is the absurd opinion generated in the days of Popery, and not yet exploded, that "Divine service is an affair of the clergy, in which the people have little share but as quiescent, well-behaved spectators; just like any other audience witnessing a show, to criticize the professional abilities of the "performers," rather than to be spiritually edified by the sacred rites. They know not that "God is in that place;" they ask not, "Will God in very deed dwell with man upon the earth;" but they have been to church, and have done their duty and now for the walk, the ride, the drive, the Sunday newspaper, the dinner-party, the drawing-room, the misnamed sacred music, if even the name be thought necessary;-and so concludes a well-spent Protestant Sunday!

PROH PUDOR!

The same ignorance of themselves, of God, of Christ, of the way of salvation, the same self-righteousness, the same false hopes, the same clinging to the world, and dislike to the ways of heavenly wisdom, which marked their career in health, will too often follow them to the bed of sickness and death. The maxim therefore is fallacious; nay, it is worse than fallacious, for it is dangerous, because it leads to hopes which too probably may not be realized; it teaches men to expect a death-bed illumination and a death-bed repentance, the reliance upon which has allured thousands and millions of souls into a fatal security. Let us rather tell men, If you live fools, you have no scriptural reason to hope that you will die otherwise than as fools, and have for ever to lament the effects of your folly in not turning to God, and "laying hold of the hope set before you in the Gospel."

I wish some new Christian Sancho would take up Mr. Cunningham's idea of rectifying our common proverbs there is scarcely one of them that is in all respects true and unexceptionable.

AN ANTI-PROVERBIALIST.

FALLACY OF COMMON PROVERBS.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer.

DR. YOUNG says, and thousands have repeated after him, "Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die."

But why may they not? What is there to prevent it? What is there of native power, and separate from Christian instruction and the influences of the Holy Spirit, in the languors of sickness or the fears of

.ON RELIGIOUS TESTS IN CHARITABLE SOCIETIES.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer.

IN alluding, in your last Number, to a late unhappy occurrence, you incidentally mention the principle adopted by the Reformation Society and its auxiliaries, of imposing a religious test to ascertain the principles of those who wish to become

also more compatible with Saturday evening parties, which naturally throw matters into a little bustle the next morning. Again, it helps to abridge the service, always a most desirable point. It adds to one's consequence, shewing that one is not a mean pitiful nobody, afraid to excite attention by breaking in upon a congregation. It is a kind and neighbourly act to those who arrived early, perhaps mistaking the time, affording them a little relief from overstrained attention. It encourages others who might find it plea sant to come late, but would have

been ashamed but for our example. It shews one is not a Methodist. It indicates a generous, courageous spirit; as though one should say, I neither fear God nor regard man, though I think this inference is rather too violent. I might mention other reasons, but these appear to me as weighty as any I could urge. Those who are not satisfied with them, had better adopt the plan recommended by your correspondent, last Number: those who are, will imitate the example of your humble servant,

BARBARA GADABOUT.

Farewell Sermons, being the Last Six Sermons delivered at Percy Chapel, Pancras, previously to the shutting-up of the Chapel, and the consequent Dispersion of the Congregation in October 1828. By the Rev. J. H. STEWART, M. A. London. 1829. 5s.

THESE discourses have revived in our minds those feelings of affection and respect towards their pious and zealous author, which the perusal of his interesting volume, the title of which appeared in our pages last month, had so recently impressed. Every page of Mr. Stewart's writings is marked by a characteristic simplicity and tenderness, by intense anxiety for the souls of men, by great plainness and faithfulness in warning the sinner, and by a constant wish to administer the hopes and consolations of the Gospel to the humble and dejected Christian. Many divines appear to tell us of what they have heard, and read, and seen; Mr. Stewart discloses what he has himself felt. It is out of the abundance of his heart that his mouth speaks: his volume is throughout a record of Christian

sympathy; he does not make it his ambition to be deeply intellectual or sublimely eloquent; but, in the emphatic word of Herbert, to be "holy," to be conformed himself to the image of his Divine Exemplar, and to bring the souls entrusted to his charge to the same celestial resemblance. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and good will to men, breathe throughout every page of his writings.

The publication now before us owes its origin to the circumstance of the chapel in which the author ministered being closed at the expiration of the lease-one of the many evils of our anomalous proprietary chapel system-and the consequent dispersion of the congregation. Mr. Stewart, however, intimates that there was something more than a merely commercial impediment to the re-union of his flock: he plainly tells us, that it was in consequence of persecution for righteousness' sake; alluding, as we have understood, and we know not why we should disguise the fact, to an intimation, that should Mr. Stewart procure any

other chapel in St. Pancras parish, the rector would not allow him to enter the pulpit, or any minister of kindred sentiments to enter in future that of Percy Chapel. It is objected, that Mr. Stewart entertains some peculiarities of opinion; and it is added, that these very sermons exhibit egotism and exaggeration in reference to the extent of the local calamity, the injury to the metropolis at large in the shutting up of Percy Chapel,and in the application of passages of Scripture descriptive of the flood coming upon the earth, or the destruction of Jerusalem, and the persecutions of the primitive Christians. But let these points be as they may, we would still ask any candid man, whether he can discover any thing in Mr. Stewart's writings, which justly places so faithful and devoted a Christian pastor out of the pale of our national communion; and for which, by the arbitrary decision of the rector of a parish, he is to be prevented entering the pulpit of any chapel which himself or his friends may procure for his ministerial labours. But it is not, as we understand, for any alleged peculiarity in Mr. Stewart's sentiments, that he is thus thrown as an outcast upon society; but simply because he is a friend to Bible, Missionary, and other kindred institutions, no abettor of which is in future to be licensed by the rector of St. Pancras to any chapel in that extensive metropolitan parish. We give the statement specifically, because this will allow of its being contradicted if it be incorrect. The charge against Mr. Stewart, we are informed, is not that he entertains Calvinistic sentiments, or that he has published a treatise on the necessity of seeking more abundantly an effusion of the Holy Spirit, or that he has a strong opinion respecting the second advent of our Lord; but that he has identified himself with what are called "the Evangelical Clergy," and the promoters of CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 328.

the religious societies before mentioned. And does the rector of St. Pancras, or does any other private clergyman, or ecclesiastical dignitary, suppose for a moment that his arm can impede the progress of those invaluable Christian institutions? If they do, we can only say, their policy is as shortsighted as it is exceptionable; for whatever difference of opinion there may be in reference to the sentiments or the proceedings of any individual, there will be but one feeling throughout the kingdom if individuals are to be "persecuted" for what they hold in common with so many of the best and wisest members of our church and of our common faith. The rector of St. Pancras has but to state that he banishes Mr. Stewart, or any other clergyman, from every pulpit in his overgrown parish, on account of their attachment to Bible and Missionary societies, and he will inevitably give those societies a popularity in his parish which they have not hitherto enjoyed; and this not merely by the natural feelings of the human mind, which revolt at every species of oppression, but by exciting a spirit of serious inquiry, which, wherever it arises, must of necessity be favourable to the progress of any cause grounded on true benevolence and scriptural sanction.

We can most honourably allow for much of the alleged egotism and exaggeration of these discourses, in the deep mutual affection and sympathy which evidently existed between the pastor and his now scattered flock. Το a stranger taking up the volume, many passages may appear overcharged, which were but in strict keeping to the deep regrets and intensely excited feelings of the parties immediately concerned. To them the disruption. of pastoral and fraternal ties was no light matter: it was felt to be a severe calamity, "a gracious chastisement," says Mr. Stewart, "from

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