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for us, makes His victory availing in the individual experience of His people :

“For if death is loss, Christ can make up for it ten thousand fold. Is our earthly life ended ? He gives us a long life, even for ever and ever. Does death sever us from those we love on earth? Christ unites us to those we love in heaven. He takes us from sin to sinlessness, from perfect weakness to perfect strength, from restlessness to rest, from faith to sight, from men to angels, from cold prayers to the song that ceases not day nor night, from a world lying in wickedness to the just made perfect in sight of the throne. If Christ cannot, or will not, do all this for us, then He is nothing to us; and why do we believe on Him? If He can and will, to die is gain.” (pp. 148, 149.)

Mr. Thorold's remarks upon the difference which is found to exist in the experience of Christians in their anticipation of the approach of death, are characterized by much sound judgment and discretion. Whilst maintaining, with all becoming earnestness, the great truth, that, by virtue of the victory of their Head, the sting of death has been extracted on behalf of every believer in Jesus, Mr. Thorold insists, with yet greater earnestness, on the truth, that it is by faith, and not by joy, that we are saved; and he adduces, by way of illustration and confirmation of his position that the fear of death is sometimes permitted to continue even to the end, two of the purposes which we may well believe that God designs to accomplish in the permission of this trial of the faith and patience of His people.

“ One is the conversion or edification of those who stand by; the other is the final perfecting of those who suffer. It is a story often told of an eminent servant of God, who had, during his lifetime, frequently prayed that his happy death might be blessed to an ungodly son, that when his time came, fear and sadness overwhelmed him; not so much the thought of Christ's salvation possessed him, as the fact of his own sinfulness; the joy of heaven faded before his sense of unworthiness of admission tbere. Yet God, who was wiser than he answered his prayer in a way that he knew not. •Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.' The careless son, who might not have been affected by his father's happiness, was deeply moved by his father's fear. “If a man like him, after a useful and religious life, fears to die, what is death likely to be to me? Surely, except I repent, I shall perish.' Now for such an end, who would not welcome such a sorrow.

“There is yet another reason why it may seem good to God, in the last hours of our life, to hide His face for a little moment. We may have been leaning too much on ontward helps, or on past ex. perience, or on systems of doctrine; and we have not come quite close to God Himself, to cleave with all our strength to Him, Therefore He must teach us, and through us others, that orthodox

Vol. 69.-No. 381.

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opinions cannot give ng peace; that sermons, and sacraments, and ordinances cannot give 18 peace ; that pious parents, faithful pastors, exemplary friends cannot Ive is peace; .... in a word, that ail envering of our own mist be torn into shreds. that all inorord hopes must be ytterly disappointed, that every cheiter but the Rheiter of the Saviour's croes must be swept away before the winds of heaven, that every coher name as a way of salvation must be as sounding brand or tinkling cymbal, save Jagra, Svi o GOD. Sooner or later, all this must come to us: it is better if it comes betre, bat better then than never ; and dark as the declining hour may be, severe as the actual crisis may be. it comes to an end at last. The fight is won, the crreg is clasped, the light comes, the joy comes, for the savior comes; and He who waited only to be more gracious, who hid Himself only to shine out more glorious at last, who de nied that in the end He might be more bountiful, who seemed to frown only berause He parposed to smile, comes and whispers, . Sim, be of good cheer; thy sins are forgiren thee; and the rough water is passed, the ship glides into harbour, "and the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass that they escapes all safe to land."

Bat we have already far exceeded the limits within which we rusually confine oor notices of books of this character. We feel persuaded, however, that our readers will not think that we owe them any apology for the length of our extracts; and we shall be greatly garprised if the specimens which we have given of the contents of this extremely interesting course of Lectures does not excite within them a desire to peruse the volume for themselves.

BIRKS ON CHURCH AND STATE. 1. The Christian State; or, the First Principles of National

Religion. By the Rev. T. R. Birks, M.A., Kector of Kelshall,

Herts. London: Seeleys. 1847. 2. Church and State; or, National Religion and Church Esta

blishments, considered with reference to present Controversies. By the Rev. T. R. Birks, Vicar of Holy Trinity, Cambridge. With a Preface by the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Lincoln. London: Hatchards. 1869.

“The subject of this volume,” observes the Bishop of Lincoln in the opening of the Preface by which he has endorsed the arguments and conclusions stated in the body of Mr. Birks' recent work, “is acquiring additional importance in every successive year as the world approaches to its end.” Its prominence at the present time is mainly due to two causes; the gradual gravitation of the nations of Europe towards democracy, and the concurrent growth throughout Christendom of a spirit of scepticism and unbelief. The latter movement is essentially antagonistic to Established Churches

-for opposition to the connection of religion with the State is natural in men who hold opinions subversive of the very existence of religion. But apart from the attacks of infidelity, the continued existence of civil establishments of Christianity is menaced by the transformation of the political institutions with which they are associated. When a Church is connected with a State, the terms of the connection must be affected by every change in the Constitution either of the Church or of the State; and it is conceivable that the condition of the latter may undergo such modifications as may render undesirable, or even impossible, a union which had previously proved an advantage to both. It is therefore no matter of surprise that in this country, at the present time, looking at the alterations which have already taken place in the administration of our civil affairs since our Church was united to the State, and the further alterations which may take place, men are asking themselves, more than they have ever hitherto done, whether the Establishment of that Church ought any longer to be upheld? One branch has been doomed; on what grounds is the other to be maintained ? What are the advantages of the union between the Church and the State, and what evils would result from its dissolution ?

It is with the view of supplying an answer to questions such as these that Mr. Birks has in his later work republished, with considerable alterations and additions, the thoughts many years ago embodied by him in the volume the title of which we have placed first at the head of this article, and which has been long out of print. The views of Mr. Birks on the subject carry with them the more weight from the fact that, as he tells us in the preface to his recent treatise, he once held opinions the very opposite to those which he has advocated in this and in the earlier work.

The question of the connection of the Church with the State may be treated under two different aspects. We may consider it mainly in reference either to its abstract truth, or to its practical utility. The true and the really useful are, indeed, so inseparably intermingled and bound up with each other, that it is impossible wholly to dissociate them even for the purpose of discussion; but the line of argument will be widely different according as we adopt the first or the second of the methods we have indicated. In the one case it will turn upon duty, in

the other upon expediency. But inasmuch as the path of duty is ever the path of true expediency, we may be sure that, if correctly pursued, the investigations will both lead to the same result. They will concur either in approving or in condemning the principle of Establishments. And thus, in the discussion of this subject, as in that of many others, the two lines of reasoning are useful as checks upon each other; since, if they apparently guide us to opposite conclusions, we may be certain of the existence of a flaw in either one or the other.

The arguments in Mr. Birks' recent book (for it is to a review of this that we shall confine ourselves in the present article) are founded upon the very highest considerations of duty. In the loftiness of the principles to which they appeal, they remind us of Mr. Gladstone's reasoning in his work on “ The State in its relations with the Church.” But while Mr. Gladstone relied for his position on the idea of personality and conscience in the State an idea which, notwithstanding his powerful arguments in its support, is, we maintain, no less a fiction than the theory of the alliance between Church and State which he condemned for its unreality-Mr. Birks deduces his conclusions from the religious obligations which lie upon statesmen and rulers equally with ordinary citizens in their individual capacity, or rather, as we might perhaps better put it, upon all individuals, from the poorest elector to the king on his throne, in their political no less than their private character. Reason, we think, points to this latter as the more true, while experience has shown it to be the safer basis. A reference to the " Chapter of Autobiography” will disclose to us the manner in which Mr. Gladstone has had, or fancies he has had, the ground taken away from under his feet on the subject of Church and State, by the political events which have happened since the latest edition of his work. But Mr. Birks' principles will hold good so long as Christian men have any authority in the legislature, and have power to direct its acts to the advancement of true religion.

Proceeding as they do upon the assumption of the paramount claims of the Christian religion, Mr. Birks' arguments are of course addressed only to men who do not dispute those claims. The function of the book is thus somewhat confined, but it is far from being on that account uncalled for. There are, alas ! in the present day, many who, while they would not deny that religion ought to be the groundwork of private and social life, at the same time openly avow their opinion that it should be wholly excluded from the field of public and political life. If all who admit the peculiar duties imposed by Christianity on individual persons, recognised sj. milar obligations as binding upon communities at large, there

would be little fear that the efforts of the openly irreligious and infidel, unsupported by assistance from men professedly religious and God-fearing, would succeed in overthrowing the civil establishment of Christianity, or in effecting that outward severance between religion and politics, to which the course of public events appears to be now fast tending.

Mr. Birks has divided his treatment of the subject into two parts, in the first of which he discusses the question of National Religion, and in the second, that of Church Establishments. The first of these questions is in every way the more important. It is upon the principle of a National Religion that the opponents of an Established Church always join issue with its defenders; for when that principle is affirmed, the establishment either of one Church or of several Churches follows as a natural corollary, from the peculiar constitution of that religion, of which both parties, for the most part, admit the general truth.

The main drift of Mr. Birks' reasoning, so far as it aims at the establishment of positive conclusions, and is not directed to the refutation of objections which might be urged against his theory, may be gathered from the seven propositions stated at the commencement of his first chapter, as containing, in his opinion, the maxims on which the duty of National Religion is based in its true and Scriptural idea. The propositions are as follows:

“1. All kings, princes, and civil rulers, to whom the Gospel of Christ has been made known, are bound to embrace it with their whole heart, and to submit themselves, with all their royal or princely power, to the supreme authority of the Son of God. They are bound to rule in the fear of God, to avow their allegiance to Christ, and to do all things to the glory of their Lord and Master in heaven.

“2. T'hey ought, therefore, to base their laws on the revealed laws of God, to execute them with a direct appeal to His authority, to own themselves His servants, and to honour Him with acts of public worship, in prayer, praise, adoration, and thanksgiving.

“3. Their duty, as God's ministers for the good of the people, has a wider range than the security of life and property by armed force, or the fear of punishment. They are bound to honour moral excellence above worldly riches, to care for the wants of the soul more than those of the body, and to seek that truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established among their people to all generations.

“4. The visible Church is ordained by Christ for the spread of Divine truth, that families, states, and kingdoms may be made obedient to His gospel, and learn and do His will. Christian rulers, then, are bound not only to become its members, but to promote its labours of love, and to give it every help in their power for its growth and increase.

“5. Rulers are bound, therefore, in their laws, to recognise the

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