PROTESTANTISM IN FLORENCE. Protestant worship continues to be celebrated in Florence. The attendants amount to nearly 200, and the minister, M. Colomb, it is stated, devotes himself with great piety and zeal to their spiritual welfare. The government have even allowed sermons to be preached in Italian; so that the natives, if they please, may at least learn what is Protestant doctrine. The Italians are too apt to consider Protestants as Deists, not seeing them exercise the public rites of their religion, which has not till of late years been allowed.

LUTHERAN CHURCH IN THE

UNITED STATES.

Lutherans are to be found in almost every part of the United States. They have about 900 churches, but not so many as 200 pastors, the members being in many parts widely scattered, and one pastor itinerating among several churches. The ministers are chiefly supplied from Germany, and the service is usually in German, though in some places it is in English; but a native theological seminary has recently been established, at which twenty young Americans are studying.

THERE are several subjects of foreign and domestic importance to which we were anxious to direct the attention of our readers; but, for the present, we must again pass them by, in order to notice the result of the great question which has so intensely agitated the country. That result is, however, familiar to every reader. The great question is settled; we would hope, and we sincerely believe, auspiciously settled. The commons have said "aye," the lords "content, and the king "le veut." In the lower house, on the third reading, the numbers were, for the measure 320, and against it 142, making a majority of 178. In the house of lords the divisions were much more strongly in favour of the bill than had been anticipated, even by the most sanguine of its well-wishers It having been once read formally without opposition, the first division, including proxies, was 217 to 112, majority 105; and the second division 213 to 109, majority 104. To give even an abstract of the protracted debates, in either house, would be wholly incompatible with our present limits; nor is it necessary, as they have been universally read throughout the country; and we hope, either by devoting our Appendix at the end of the year to the subject, or in some other way, to embody in our pages an ample history of these moment. ous proceedings to which our readers and their children's children may refer back in future years for information. Our volumes would be incomplete without such a record. We therefore pass over this part of the subject for the present. We are disposed to think that the contending parties, opposite as were their conclusions, were generally honest in their opinions; for few questions have been argued with a more complete disruption of the ordinary ties of political party. It is grievous, CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 328.

therefore, to witness the asperity which has been evinced in many quarters to some of the public men who have come forward, or have been forced forward by events, in this great question; and especially to those revered prelates who voted in the majority. It is impossible for a moment to question the good faith of the two Archbishops of England, the Archbishop of Armagh, the Bishops of Bath and Wells, Bristol, Carlisle, Chichester, Durham, Ely, Exeter, Gloucester, Hereford, Lincoln, London, Meath, Peterborough, Salisbury, St. Asaph, and Worcester, who were in the minority; and as little do we question that of the bishops of Chester, Derry, Kildare, Llandaff, Lichfield and Coventry, Oxford, Rochester, St. David's, and Winchester, who were in the majority. We say nothing of the arguments on either side; but only of the wish of the parties to vote conscientiously for the benefit of religion and of their country.

There was, however, one class of arguments employed, and in some high quarters, which, as Protestants and Christian observers, we ought not, even in this brief notice, to pass over without censure, we mean those which went to apologize for the errors and delusions of Popery. We believe the measure to have been wise, equitable, patriotic, and in accordance with the principles and spirit of Scripture; but in granting to our RomanCatholic countrymen an equal share in the civil privileges of the common-weal, it would be un-Christian, anti-Protestant, and suicidal to shut our eyes to the enormities of Popery. Our duty, as Christians and Protestants, is far otherwise: we have responsibilities to the full height of which we ought to rise: and we were prepared to dwell at considerable length upon this important point in our present Number; but having received from the Rev. Daniel Wilson a second letter, which

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refers to it with great force and in considerable detail, we must again postpone our intended observations, many of which are anticipated and superseded by his able paper. We perfectly concur in the tenor of his observations. What he has said respecting zeal on the one hand, and a spirit of conciliation on the other, is emi. nently important, especially at the present moment of public excitement. Nor less so his recommendations respecting societies, education, and tracts; or his observations on the importance of promoting habits of diligence and providence; the greatest hindrance to which would be the introduction of that alleged panacea, however modified-poor laws: in reference to which we heartily wish that both in England and in Ireland, Christian economics were among the sciences universally taught to the poor.-that even in our schools familiar tracts were introduced, shewing the evils of pauperism, and inculcating a taste for higher enjoyments than those of sordid self-indulgence, explaining the nature of wages, the prerequisites to happy unions in marriage, and various other points. But this only incidentally. We equally concur in our valued friend's appeal to the clergy of the Established Church of Ireland: our only objection to it is, that, strong as it is, it is scarcely strong enough. We have enjoyed for ages the munificent ecclesiastical revenues of the Church of Ireland: but what have we done with them, for the spiritual welfare of the people? Individuals at all times have been active and conscientious, and recently there have been most favourable symptoms of a great natural increase of clerical zeal and piety; but, speaking in the main, how little has the wealth of the Church of Ireland been consecrated to the spiritual welfare of the people. Power, and influence, and patronage, and family interest, and secular partizanship, and meré political Protestantism, have been too long and too widely the arbiters of the Church of Ireland; while the souls of men and responsibility to God have been forgotten in the struggle. But we check our hand: we hope for better days, and will not recal the memory of past neglects. Only we should add, that we ought not to consider Ireland as sueing to us in the form of a pauper. She has powerful claims upon us in attending to them, we do but discharge our duty; in neglecting them, we commit a sin.

We have purposely avoided again entering upon the faults or the merits of the great measure which has now passed into a law. We have already stated our views, and to urge them further might only keep up asperities without any corresponding benefit. There is no cause for triumph or any side; and there are some things which, after the first moments of heat are past, Christians will feel require mu tual forbearance and forgiveness. We

most cordially applaud the following Christian sentiments of Mr. Faber on this subject.

"Should the present bill pass into a law, the man who most encourages the spirit of forgiveness and oblivion will be at once the best citizen and the best Christian. While a measure is in progress, it is the constitutional right of every Briton to meet it with a fair and manly and open opposition: when it has finally received the royal assent, it is the duty of every upright member of the community to submit. Should future peace, and union, and happiness, and increase of sound religion, as the confidently expected fruits of this bill, practically confute me; at such a felicitous defeat no person will rejoice more sincerely than myself."

In taking leave for the present of this absorbing question, shall we act otherwise than as Christian observers if we appeal to our readers, on the score of individual responsibilities and professions, as members of the Reformed Church? It is easy to speculate on the dangers, or the advantages supposed to be derivable to our own communion from the present posture of affairs: but maywe not be so entirely occupied by temporal views of passing subjects, as to forget higher and eternal prospects? May not some among us be suspending the care of their own souls, while they are watching the progress of courts and parliaments; sinking the believer in Jesus Christ into the eager and impatient politician;

and coming nearly to a pause in their career after an immortal crown. When the soul has been beguiled by this temptation into secularity and earthliness of feeling, it must be a loser; and that, not only in reference to its own prosperity, but as affecting all who come under its influence. This is especially true as regards the ministers of Christ; and if any such have allowed themselves to be betrayed into irritations and animosities, either in the pulpit or elsewhere, their flocks will be no gainers-not one step nearer to a celestial inheritance; but rather dragged down from the contemplation of heavenly things, to grovel among worldly and transitory anxieties. It is possible, indeed, so to discuss a subject bearing upon the political concerns of a kingdom, yet intermingledwith religious cautions as to render it at once a lesson for time and eternity. But to do this is a Divine art, of which how few appear to possess the secret! and of many who make the attempt, the issue will be, that the spiritual portion of the effort will be hardly discernible, or be destroyed in the experiment. Would, however, that all who profess to look at the events of the times with seriousness of mind, would strive to allow religion its own rightful place-its pre-eminence and indisputable pretensions-and ask themselves, and those around them, What has been done, and is doing, on the high

ground of the eternal welfare of the human soul; that thus we may improve the urgencies of the time to our own spiritual advantage, and regard the movements of the day as an awakening call from God to "consider our ways," and to cleave with more earnestness to the faith once delivered to the saints. Let a Christian first give himself to a steady and persevering use of the means of grace, and thus, to the security of his own everlasting happiness; and he may then, with great safety, descend into the conflict around him. To this he will then come as a peace-maker; and if he can do but little with the mere men of the world, he may be able to inspire combatants of a higher aim and character with his own feelings; and may also be honoured by causing the dubious, the half-hearted, and the fluctuating, to be more decisive in the Christian warfareby stimulating them to look well to themselves, and to choose the side of their Lord and Saviour; lest, should they continue to linger between the two parties of believers and unbelievers, they should ultimately lose their own souls; and be disappointed of eternal blessings, while the tempter is amusing them with nothing better than disputes on Catholic emancipation.

But we must lay down our pen to introduce Mr. Wilson's letter.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. Islington, April 28, 1829. MR. EDITOR,-Being informed in various quarters, that, after the part I have taken I can truly say, most unexpectedly and reluctantly taken-in the great religious question which has agitated our country, I am loudly called upon to suggest what can be done at the present juncture for the spiritual good of Ireland,- much as I shrink from pressing any thoughts of so humble an individual as myself upon the public attention, I cannot for an instant withhold any aid in my power, towards the spiritual welfare of my Irish fellowsubjects. I would I had more local knowledge, and more leisure for adequate inquiry. But I am so deeply convinced of the guilt of our great neglect as Englishmen in this respect-1 am so penetrated with painful reflections on centuries of misrule and indifference to the best interests of our sister kingdom, that I am ready to venture any hazard in hastening to her relief. That something should be done, and done promptly and effectually, I cannot doubt. I throw out the thoughts which occur to me, rather for the purpose of soliciting the advice of better-informed friends, than with any idea of doing justice to the great subject. Novelty is not to be expected.

If I am asked, then, What are the MEANS to be employed for the spiritual welfare of Ireland? I answer,

I. The chief instrument must be the Gospel of Christ. We have no other means for elevating and restoring ruined man. God, in the person of his Son, reconciling the world unto himself: God by his Holy Spirit illuminating, converting, consoling man, is the grand remedy. A departure from this Gospel has been the spring of the troubles of Ireland. Superstition, idolatry, priestcraft, human commandments have been substituted in its place, and have produced their natural effects. To these have been too much opposed a partyProtestantism, cold orthodoxy, a form of godliness devoid of life and power, a proud and angry morality without the inspiring grace of love. One superstition has been employed in putting down another. Statesmen have come in between the contending religions, with enactments for the restraint and coercion of crime. Philosophers have interfered with their theories of virtue and schemes of political economy. Nothing effectual has been done. We must return to the simplicity of the Gospel, that Gospel which is founded on the death and sacrifice of Christ, which touches the conscience, which is adapted to the inward necessities of a sinner, which is attended with a Divine influence, which changes the bias of the heart, restores man to himself and to his God, attracts him by the love of his Saviour, and animates him with charity towards his fellow-creatures. overthrew the altars of heathenism. This This Gospel at the birth of our Lord Gospel, revived at different eras by St. Austin, Claudius of Turin, Waldo, Wickliffe, asserted its pristine grace. This Gospel, again brought to light after a slumber of centuries, by the noble army of Reformers, penetrated England, Scotland, Switzerland, Denmark, and half of Germany and of France, three centuries since. It is this Gospel which Ireland wants now. Every other means is important and efficacious as it is connected with this. We have this Gospel in our Articles and Liturgy; let it only be embodied, exhibited, presented in its native purity to the hearts and consciences of our fellowcountrymen, and it will still be found "the power of God unto salvation." It has lost none of its virtue. "The arm of the Lord is not shortened that it cannot save, neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear: but our iniquities have separated between us and our God." The Holy Saviour has been forgotten and dishonoured. Human wisdom, human laws, and human expedients, have been too much relied on. The Spirit of grace, in consequence, has not blessed our efforts; and hence our evils. Thank God, the last few years have seen a revival in the Irish Protestant church. The " glorious Gospel of the grace of God " has been better understood, felt, Let this be expreached in her pulpits. tended more widely still here let faith fix her foot; let her wield, in humble depend

ence on the operations of the Holy Spirit, the tried armour of Evangelical truth, and her victory is sure.

2. The next means to be employed is the free circulation of the Holy Scriptures, in which this Gospel is contained. Marvellous is it that the Bible, which communicates the inspired and perfect will of God, should have lain for ages so much neglected, even in the Protestant churches. We have magnified the fallible writings of man, we have relied on names and authorities, we have dispersed books and expositions of human fabric, and have forgotten the word of God. Never can we expect real religion to be revived, till the book in which all the parts of it are contained as they fell from the lips of the inspired Apostles, is placed in the hands of our people. Truth from the mouth of ministers is weakened, mingled with errors, associated with prejudices, partial in its range, and defective in its tone and colour. Truth, as it lies in the Bible, is pure, unmixed, impartial, and complete: it flows clear like waters from their source; it lies amassed like gold in its native bed. At the Reformation, the Bible was the chief instrument for propagating the new learning, as it was then called. It was to the New Testament that Luther made his appeal. In this view the magnificent simplicity of the British and Foreign Bible Society must and will commend itself more and more to the affections of consi.. derate Christians. It has a'ready begun to do something for Ireland. Its associations are diffusing themselves over the island *. Its funds are supplying more impoverished societies with thousands and ten thousands of copies of the holy word. Let this sublime project be urged forward. What does Ireland generally know of the Bible? Who amongst her cottagers have till lately ever seen it? How many thousands and tens of thousands have even now scarcely any knowledge that there is such a volume! How many make the Massbook, or some legend of saints, or a treatise of Popish devotion, their inspired Scriptures! How many thousands rest in some miserable abridgment of the Bible concocted and excogitated by priests-some twenty pages of historical summary

in the stead of the Divine word! Send the Bible, then, into every cottage. Let it plead its own cause against superstition and ignorance; let it be the companion of the private hour; let it be the cherished guide of youth; let it be the standard to which age refers all the doctrines it hears from man; let it be the element of the true primitive revival of the Gospel-the matter of prayer, the criterion of truth, the instrument of salva

Six hundred Bible Societies, and 80 or 90,000 copies of the Scriptures circulated yearly in Ireland, is a dawn of a bright day.

tion, in the hands of that Holy Spirit, who never fails to attend the humble perusal of his own inspired record.

3. But even this is far from all. The Bible may be neglected, may be perverted, may be misunderstood or explained away. The faithful and affectionate discharge of the ministry of the Gospel is, therefore, the means appointed by Almighty God for awakening attention to the Bible, for accompanying the use of it, and for applying its various truths to the hearts and consciences of men. The ministry is, indeed, only instrumental and subordinate. Every instruction it utters must be tried by the inspired Scriptures. But it is of indispensable importance. It pleases God still, by what men account the "foolishness of preaching," to save them that believe. It is not the Gospel in the mere letter of the Scriptures, but the Gospel as applied to the heart and conscience, as quickened by the living voice of exhortation, reproof, counsel; as clothed in all the affections and solemnities of entreaty, compassion, warning, which is God's ordinary instrument for saving men. It is the minister who directs truth to the case of each, who forces the languid attention, who arouses the conscience, interposes between the sinner and his sins, cries aloud in the chief places of concourse, and disturbs a slumbering world. It is the minister who raises the voice of prayer and supplication, who reads and unfolds the Divine Scriptures, who administers the holy sacraments, who exercises a mild and paternal discipline in the church of the living God. It is the minister who from the public assemblies of the faithful, meekly repairs to the chamber of sickness, and teaches the penitent to look to the crucified Saviour. It is the minister who is the friend of the sorrowful, the guide of the inquirer, the strength of the weak, the reclaimer of the wandering. He goes up and down after each lost sheep until he finds it, and restores it to the fold with the voice of persuasion and love; he hastens even into the highways and hedges that he may bring in guests to the great banquet of mercy. It is the minister who exhibits, in short, what Christianity really is before the eyes of his flock; embodies and realizes it to their view, and makes it bear, in its loveliness and tenderness, upon the human heart. Christianity was never revived and diffused without a holy body of devoted and consistent ministers, raised up by the providence, and qualified by the grace, of God, who received the Gospel directly from the Bible, and presented it warm and fresh and influential to the attention of men. How little the parochial clergy in England answer, in many instances, to this high end, we all too painfully know. Our Irish brethren may probably have to lament similar defects; though I rejoice to hear, from all quarters, the tidings of

the greatly revived piety of their bishops and clergy. The evangelical purity of our Established Formularies offers us every advantage for our labours. Articles more Scriptural we could not draw up, if we would. We have only, whether Irish or English clergymen, to rise to our high vocation; we have only to understand first, and then expound, and then apply our holy message: we have only to fill up the outline drawn for us by our Reformers, in order to discharge the duties of a time like the present. An Established Church, animated with the true spirit of the Gospel, holy and consistent in its ministers, mild and tolerant towards those who differ from it, and directly subserving the vast end of Divine mercy amongst the people, affords an advantage of incomparable importance. Every clergyman and pastor throughout Ireland must now arouse himself from his slumbers; he must awake to the new circumstances in which he is placed. He must not be content with his old habits, or his old efforts; he must not confine his offices of Christian love and zeal to his few Protestant families; he must consider all the population of his parish as demanding his aid, and must be up and doing, in order to render it. Far from sitting down in despair, and purchasing a false peace by connivance, he must endeavour to penetrate the recesses of superstition, to detect the devices of the great enemy of souls, and to bring home the Gospel of salvation to the breast of every individual of his flock.

4. Universal Education is the next obvious means of giving efficacy to the Gospel as contained in the Bible, and enforced by the minister of religion. Education, as enjoined in the sacred Scriptures, is religious and parental. It is the means put into the handsof parents for handing downChristianity to the next age. What is to prepare an intelligent congregation for pastoral instruction? What is to aid the pastor in his private persuasions and warnings? What is to enable the people to read and meditate upon the word of God, and to compare with it the doctrine delivered to them? What is to raise a population above the thraldom of a gross domination over the conscience? What is to lead them to inquire into the grounds and reasons of true religion? What is to soften and harmonize their manners, to elevate their intellectual character, to rouse them to exertion, to prepare a sober, diligent, loyal, contented peasantry? It is education, religious education, education founded on the Bible, expounded in the elementary instruction of catechisms, wrought into the young understanding, and entwined about the young heart by the pious and tender teacher, and blessed by Almighty God to the exciting and sanctifying all the fresh and opening powers of the soul. I rejoice at the zeal for Educa.

tion, which, during the last fifteen or twenty years, has been kindled throughout Ireland. The revival of letters and the invention of printing were not a more elevated vantage ground at the time of the Reformation, than universal education is at present. Learning then roused the human mind first, and religion came in and gave it a right direction. Education may do now what learning did then. Education, extended to the many, will avail more than learning, which reached only to the few. Let the clergy, then, let every friend to Ireland, urge the formation of schools, improve the kind of instruction which they communicate, make them bear as much as possible a Scriptural character, and supply by personal labour their defects. To render education in the highest sense effective, the pious master and mistress, supported and guided by the devoted and enlightened minister of religion, must impress truth upon the heart, with the well-known voice of benevolence and love. Every lower degree of education should, indeed, be fostered; and, in the situation of Ireland, I apprehend we must long be glad to avail ourselves even of very inferior methods of instruction. But let us not despair; the plan is only of late birth; a generation has not yet passed since we began to be in earnest for the best welfare of Ireland. Let us wait the maturity of the present race of scholars; let us wait till schools for training teachers have poured out the elements of knowledge; let us wait till the conspiring means of a revived Gospel, a free circulation of the Bible, an energetic ministry, and universal education have been made to bear upon the superstition of centuries. We shall" in due season reap if we faint not." In the mean time, let every clergyman saturate his own population with the heavenly dew. Let him begin with infant schools; and let him seize the germ of intellect and feeling to inculcate a new scyon. Let Sunday schools be commenced wherever they are yet wanting, and be improved and elevated where they exist. The details of the ministry of the Gospel fall much upon education; catechetical labours are expended in education; the application of truth to the heart of the young, is effected in education; education is the seed time of life-the moment for digging the unpolished mass from the quarry the season for engrafting the stock with a fresh and sweeter produce→→ the brief opportunity, which, if lost, is lost for ever.

5. As a most effectual method of aiding this great labour of education, all existing societies embracing the object of universal education, should be fostered, strengthened, and expanded, to greater activity and zeal. What the_separate efforts of the clergy cannot effect, may be done by association and the division of