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Mediator," as the very term implies, is not simply the agent "of one” party; he acts on behalf of more, and always of parties at variance. "But God is one;" the Mediator cannot therefore be an agent for God only, but must be that of some other party also. In this case the Israelites are that party; they must therefore be at variance with God; and thus the very circumstances under which the law was given prove that it did not justify, but left the variance abiding.

Mark xi. 12, 13.-Our correspondent finds it difficult to reconcile this text with the omniscience of our Lord. We do not share his perplexity: Jesus was about to give his disciples an instructive lesson in his human capacity.

Prov. xxxi. 21.-The word translated scarlet should be rendered double garments, as the margin gives it. The root is now, iteravit; and it is therefore sometimes used for the Tyrian dye; as Horace, (Lib. II. Od. xvii.)

"Te bis Afro

Murice tincta

Vestirent lanæ.

Matt. xviii. 10.-The allusion is to the doctrine of guardian spirits, which is fully borne out by Scripture. Thus, when St. Peter was miraculously liberated, the disciples said, "It is his angel" [that has done this], which was the fact. (Acts xii. 15.) See Heb. i. 14; Ps. xxxiv. 7.

Luke ix. 18.-(which is the text our correspondent means by Luke ix. 10.) is not distinctly translated. The word rendered alone is καταμόνας, which is an elliptical expression for κατὰ μόνας χώρας, in retired places. There is no contradiction therefore in the clause, "his disciples were with him."

The expression, "with my body I thee worship" in the Matrimonial Service, is fully explained in the Notes to Bishop Mant's Common Prayer. The term worship, in old English, does not signify the respect due to God only. In the old Translation of 1 Sam. ii. 30. the words stood "Him that worshippeth me I will worship;" i.e. I will make honourable. The husband promises to confer upon his wife all his personal honours, titles, &c.-making her his equal in rank, and participator in his station; denoting, in short, the difference between the privileges of a wife, and the casual favours received by a concubine.

The expression in the Burial Service, "in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life," &c. has been very needlessly impugned. We commit the body to the ground, not in the certainty of its resurrection to eternal life, but in the hope of that event; this hope we call a sure and certain hope, because it is exercised on certainties. The ancient heathens had a hope of eternal life, but the very existence of such a life was to them an uncertainty. Their hope might be therefore called an uncertain hope, and is actually called by Virgil," Spes incerta futuri." But "life and immortality are brought to light by the Gospel;" to us they are certainties; the hope of them may therefore be justly called a sure and certain hope, because it is directed to certainties. After all, the expression does not directly refer to the resurrection of the particular person, but to the general doctrine of the resurrection.

CHRISTIAN SABBATHS.

HYMNS FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT.

MORNING.-ISAIAH, CH. I.

ALMIGHTY God! the pure and just!
How shall we dare approach thy throne,
When, lowly prostrate in the dust,
With trembling lips our guilt we own?

Thy sons in name, to Thee baptized,
And blest with Thy paternal care,
How have we all Thy love despised,
Or mocked Thee with the heartless prayer!

But Thou hast bid us turn and live,
Sparing our guilt with long delay;
And wilt Thou with the sinner strive,
Yet spurn the penitent away?

O Lamb of God, for sinners slain,
Renew our hearts, our sins forgive!
So, cleans'd from every crimson stain,
Our spotless souls to Thee shall live.

Falmouth.

EVENING.-ISAIAH, CH. II.

His kingdom comes! Ye saints, rejoice!
Let earth and heaven unite their voice
To swell the lofty strain.

Shout, shout the awful news abroad;
The mighty King! The glorious God!
He comes, on earth to reign!

High o'er the wrecks of worldly state,
On chosen Sion's topmost seat,

Jehovah sets His throne.

Now shall the lands confess His power,
And all the earth His name adore,

And serve the Lord alone.

Before the terrors of His face,
The pride of mortal man shall cease,

And every idol fall.

Prostrate be every lofty foe;

The pomp and power of earth lie low;
And God be all in all!

E. O.

SELF-BAPTISM.

MR. EDITOR,-In conversation the other day with a party of friends, which ran a good deal upon the subject contained in the following paper, one of the company recollected, he said, a curious case in point, viz. that of a person, who actually baptized himself. I thought the case so remarkable as to be worth the attempt to become acquainted with particulars; and learning from him that it occurred at Rickmansworth, I applied, through a common friend, to the Rector, requesting him to inform me of what he might know respecting so unusual an occurrence. Mr. H. very kindly gratified my curiosity, and sent me the following account: with permission (upon my requesting it) to offer it to the CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER.

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"REV. SIR, In reply to your enquiry through our excellent friend, the Archdeacon of St. Alban's, I hasten to state what cannot easily be forgotten. On my first coming to this parish, I found Christopher Leach, drawing near to his eightieth year, in the occupation of a small farm, illiterate, but respected by all around him for his uniform habits of industry and sobriety, and his general good conduct. He lived a mile from the church, a trying hill for aged limbs lying between the house of God and his own: but he was still seen not unfrequently at the former, though never at the Lord's table. On this subject I took repeated opportunities of conversing with him, but for years in vain. He seemed indisposed to comply with my wishes, though ready to allow that it was his duty to do so. On the day that he completed his ninetieth year, I took my walk that way, being aware of the circumstance; and after a few natural remarks on the goodness of God, in prolonging his life with the use of his faculties beyond the ordinary period, I drew him by degrees to the subject of many former conversations and then it was that he said he would let me into a secret which he could never bring himself to disclose before, though it had all along been the principal cause of his hesitation with regard to the Lord's supper. "I was never christened, Sir; owing to a disagreement on the subject of baptism between my father and mother, one of whom was a member of the Church of England, the other, an anabaptist. Growing up to man's estate, and hearing the matter often talked of, I began to feel uneasy; and in that state of mind I got up very early one summer's morning and walked down to Common Moor, (through which flows the river Colne) when I took off my clothes, and walked into the water, baptizing myself in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Returning home, I told no one at the time what I had done, hoping all was right. But in later life I have often had my doubts, and particularly since I was urged to come to the other sacrament.'

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From the honest character of old Leach, I have no doubt that he told me, on this occasion, the exact truth, singular as the story may appear. I thanked him for his confidence in me, and earnestly entreated him to comply without delay with the Form of Baptism established in our Church; and I had, in fact, the pleasure of baptizing him the following week, in the presence of his two sons, men between fifty and sixty years of age, the elder of them still living in an

adjoining parish, on a considerable farm belonging to Lord Clarendon, to whom he is bailiff. In a week or so after the ceremony of baptism, same hand, and in company with his eldest son and a third person, the other sacrament also; and he continued to receive it, from time to time, till his death.

he received from the

A grave-stone in Rickmansworth church-yard records that event thus:

"To the memory of
CHRISTOPHER LEACH,
Who died, October 11, 1822.
Aged 94.

Beloved by all who knew him."

“Rickmansworth, May, 1832.”

"E. H."

Upon the above subject, I beg to offer the following remarks:In the year 1810 a pamphlet was published, with the title, "Remarks upon a Report of Judgment, delivered by the Right Hon. Sir John Nicholl, Knight, LL. D. &c." in the case of the Rev. W. W. Wickes. In this pamphlet, the author argues forcibly against the validity of any unauthorized baptism, and falls into the following passage :

"In her offices of baptism, the Church commits this sacrament into the hand of her ministers alone; and makes no exception in favour of others; and in the exhortation used in the office for the baptism of adults, she most decidedly rejects the absolute necessity of this sacrament, and speaks of the 'great necessity of it where it may be had.' Now, this is a plain indication of her opinion, that baptism cannot always be had. But lay baptism may always be had, if the notion be true that any man can baptize. In this short passage, therefore, I cannot but perceive a strong opposition to the validity of lay baptism, an effectual condemnation of that sort of baptism which may always be had, and a full comment upon the word generally, as used in her catechism. Lay baptism, I repeat it, may always be had at any time, and in any place whatever. It would be sufficient for my present argument, were I to limit the assertion to this restriction, viz. whenever two persons may meet; but I go much further, and challenge any one who rejects the necessity of the sacerdotal authority and commission, and allows the competency of any lay person to baptize, to shew cause why he ought not to admit of self-baptism. He admits that I, a layman, may baptize my footman, or my nurse, and that they may baptize me. Why am not I equally capable of performing the ceremony on myself? If I can do it for another, why may I not do it for myself?"*

COLLECTANEA.

T. S.

HARROW SCHOOL.-The governor's scholarships this year have been awarded to Mr. John Godley, son of J. Godley, Esq. of Killegar, Leitrim, Ireland; and to Mr. W. S. Richardson, son of Sir J. Richardson, of Bedford-square.

The Missal painted for the Archduke Ferdinand, by George Hufuagal, which is considered one of the most beautiful and exquisite specimens of the art of illumination, occupied the artist's undivided attention full eight years.

A letter upon the above subject may be seen in Vol. III. 407, of our Miscellany.

THE SYSTEM AND PRACTICE OF CONGREGATIONAL DISSENT UNFAVOURABLE TO RELIGION.

To separate from a Church founded upon the Scriptures, organized by the Fathers of the Reformation, and uniting the great majority of the wise and good, admits rather of being excused than justified. What plea, then, shall charity offer for those who league themselves against her with their common enemies,―with the Papist who envies her possessions, and with the demagogue and infidel who hate her purity?

Could Dissent sustain the accusations that the discipline of the Church is corrupt, her clergy generally irreligious, her followers careless, and her services formal, it would indeed become a high and solemn duty to denounce her; but the candid inquirer will easily discover that Dissent offers its own practice as the standard; and, in the exercise of assumed infallibility, condemns all that differs from itself.

Against the sentence awarded by such a tribunal, and founded upon such principles, the Church may well appeal. She may even retort upon Dissent its own charges; and sustain them, not by general inferences drawn from alleged individual misconduct, but by tracing the effects, which, upon established moral principles, may be expected to result from proved, or undisputed conditions. This, in such a question, is the only satisfactory line of argument. The pretended examples may in fact be exceptions; but, in reasoning upon extended subjects, we shall not err in receiving as a general conclusion, the natural and ordinary result of causes which apply to the whole.

The unprosperous state of any religious body, not crushed by external circumstances, proves the existence of some inherent, essential fault for success will constantly attend an institution at once judicious in itself, and efficiently administered; and the Divine blessing may be expected for that Christian community, whose discipline is most accordant to the will of God, and whose members act most consistently with the Christian spirit. To what, then, must be ascribed the progressive decline of Dissent ?

That a very serious decline really exists, is proved by facts too clear to be mistaken. Persons employed to collect in aid of embarrassed chapels are now far less successful than formerly. A more unequivocal proof is afforded by the amount of the funds collected. annually for missionary purposes. In the societies connected with the Church, these funds have increased enormously. Methodism, the poorest of all sects, has displayed a steady annual advance. But the Baptist mission has made no progress; and that of the Independents has declined one-fifth. Yet a missionary spirit has become more ardent and universal; the efforts on behalf of these societies have been renewed, and increased year by year; and every engine which party emulation and religious zeal can supply, is unceasingly exerted for them. Only declining strength can explain why redoubled exertions fail to produce corresponding results.

It is admitted by dissenting writers, that the most respectable and best informed of their young persons desert their cause for the

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