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Various objections have been urged against this practice. It has been stated, for instance, that "the sacrament of the Lord's supper is strictly a Church ordinance, and not an exercise of mere social religion, such as joint prayer, and therefore ought not to be observed but when the Church is professedly assembled. It is not an act of social religion which may be performed in any place, when two or three Christians are convened together by accident or design, but in the place of their public convention, and at the time when they are so convened."* Now it does not appear that any positive direction is contained in the Bible on this point; neither our Lord nor his apostles appear to have confined the celebration to the public exercises of religion. The mode of expression, as often as ye shall eat this," would rather extend than limit the circumstances under which this holy ordinance may be celebrated. I am aware, indeed, that very lax views have been entertained as to the sanctity of this sacrament; and that among those who deny the doctrines of the Saviour's divinity and atonement, it is reduced to a simple commemorative rite, which may be performed under any circumstances. Thus, if I mistake not, an individual of some eminence in this school has delivered it as his opinion, and not in any spirit of levity, but as his serious, deliberate judgment, that the first glass at a social meal respectfully drank in commemoration of the Saviour's death, would probably approach the nearest to the true character of the institution. Few right-thinking persons will fail to be shocked at such a notion being set forth, although the sentiment was uttered with no unbecoming levity. But while I would entertain the most solemn views of the sanctity of the Lord's supper, I cannot think that this sanctity is by any means lessened by its celebration in a sick

chamber.

Another objection is, that the administration of the sacrament to the dying has a most pernicious tendency; that it is calculated to convey the notion, that by the act of communion the sins of the past life are obliterated; and that consequently it too often speaks a false peace and security to the soul. It cannot be denied, indeed, that there are many cases where the sick entertain most erroneous views of the benefit resulting from a participation of the Lord's supper; that it is regarded as a species of viaticum; and that having performed this last act of obedience to his Lord's command, though he may have hitherto habitually neglected it, the soul's salvation will be secured. There can be little doubt but that it was viewed in this light by the relatives of the unfortunate man alluded to. Few ministers have not been compelled to witness such lamentable ignorance, have not been themselves requested to administer the sacrament to persons, if not under the precise circumstances of H-, still with most erroneous views of the whole scheme of pardoning mercy revealed in the Gospel.

But surely this is no argument at all against the administration of this holy ordinance under circumstances where there is good hope that the dying man, or at least the invalid, is fully alive to its nature and its importance. Because an individual in an unenlightened and unconverted state, with the terrors of eternity before him, is anxious to partake of the Lord's supper as a last resource, with the vague hope that, somehow or other, it will save his soul,-is therefore the last desire of a real Christian, to cat of the symbols of a Saviour's broken body and shed blood, not to be fulfilled? Because many a formalist invalid may feel more satisfied if now and then he is a partaker of the Lord's supper, is the sick chamber never to be cheered by those comforts which flow from compliance with the Saviour's dying command? May not the blessing descend when two or three are gathered together, as copiously as in the crowded assembly? and may there not be a spiritual participation of this holy sacrament, James's Church-Member's Guide.

though the table be attended but by few guests? It would appear, in fact, that the sick or dying chamber is a fit place for the celebration of such an ordinance. From that chamber, the world, its temptations, follies, and anxieties, are, comparatively speaking, shut out. The soul of the believer has become more weaned from the objects of time, and more stedfastly fixed on those of eternity. The Church has, indeed, in her 25th Article clearly set forth the true nature of the sacraments, in which she states that they "were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon or to be carried about, but that we should duly use them;" thus condemning the superstitious practices of popery, such as carrying about the host to the dying: but she has rightly appointed a service for the communion of the sick; and perhaps a minister's holiest moments are not when he is addressing the great congregation, but when in the chamber of a dying believer he is commemorating the death of Him, who is "the resurrection and the life."*

The Christian minister will take care to ascertain that the understanding of the sick or dying is sufficiently enlightened to comprehend the true nature of the Lord's supper, and also that the heart is in a fit state for communicating, before he will proceed to the administration. He will not unfrequently, indeed, however painful it may be, and however harassing to his own feelings, as well as those of the invalid, or calculated to offend friends, be compelled to refuse: indeed, not to do so, when he feels convinced that the patient is in an unfit state, would be to incur the guilt of a gross act of dereliction of duty, arising from a sinful fear of man, or a culpable anxiety to please. He must recollect, that to speak peace to a soul which is not at peace with God, is to endanger that soul's everlasting happiness, and to induce the deluded sinner to conceive that all is well as to his spiritual condition, while, in fact, he may be in a state of enmity against God. On another occasion, when the patient was perfectly sensible, I found myself compelled in conscience to refuse to administer: much ill will for a season was the consequence; but the sick woman restored to health thanked me afterwards for the refusal.

And let those whose painful duty it is to surround the dying bed of a dear and beloved relative, be especially cautious not to urge the Christian minister with reference to the point referred to, but to leave the matter to his discretion whether or not he shall administer the sacrament. Let them give him timely notice of the illness, that he may have frequent opportunities of visiting the patient, and imparting religious knowledge and religious consolation, of awakening or comforting as the case may require. In large parishes this is especially to be attended to; for it is often impossible, as many of my brethren know from experience, for the minister to find out, amidst a dense population, those who are sick; and he is frequently blamed for inatten

"The English ritual, in conformity with the universal practice of the Catholic Church, has directed the holy communion to be administered to the sick. It is of course unnecessary to defend or justify this practice to those who have a right faith with regard to that sacrament; but it may be objected to the English ritual, that the custom of the Christian Church has been to reserve the sacraments of Christ's body and blood from the public liturgy, and not to consecrate them in private. It is true that this reservation has been the most usual and perhaps the most ancient practice of the Church; but there are many instances in antiquity of the celebration of the eucharist in private for the sick. Thus Paulinus, bishop of Nola, caused the eucharist to be celebrated in his own chamber, not many hours before his death. Gregory Nazianzen informs us, that his father communicated in his own chamber, and that his sister had an altar at home; and Ambrose is said to have administered the sacrament in a private house at Rome. The English Church is therefore justified in directing the eucharist to be consecrated in private houses, for the benefit of the sick; and she has taken care, in the rubric immediately preceding the office, that the sacrament should be decorously and reverently administered. 'Having a convenient place in the sick man's house, with all things necessary so prepared that the curate may reverently minister, he shal there celebrate the holy communion.""-PALMER'S Antiquities of the English Ritual

tion to his duty, while he has been utterly ignorant that there was any case which required his more particular attention. And let those who from any circumstances are debarred from a participation of this holy sacrament, even while their hearts may be duly prepared, bear in mind, that though they may not outwardly press with their teeth the symbols of the Saviour's body, yet may they feast on him with a true and a living faith, they may spiritually eat his flesh and drink his blood, and become partakers of those inestimable benefits which he died on the cross to purchase, and which he ever lives to bestow.*

The Cabinet.

CHRISTIAN MINISTERS.- - In that they are Christ's ambassadors and his labourers, who should give them their commission, but he whose most inward affairs they manage? Is not God alone the Father of spirits? Are not souls the purchase of Jesus Christ? What angel in heaven could have said to man, as our Lord did unto Peter, "Feed my sheep-preach-baptisedo this in remembrance of me. Whose sins ye retain, they are retained; and their offences in heaven pardoned, whose faults you shall on earth forgive?" What think we? Are these terrestrial sounds, or else are they voices uttered out of the clouds above? The power of the ministry of God translateth out of darkness into glory; it raiseth man from the earth, and bringeth God himself from heaven; by blessing visible elements it maketh them invisible graces; it giveth daily the Holy Ghost; it hath to dispose of that flesh which was given for the life of the world, and that blood which was poured out to redeem souls; when it poureth malediction upon the heads of the wicked, they perish; when it revoketh the same, they revive. O wretched blindness, if we admire not so great power; more wretched, if we consider it aright, and notwithstanding imagine that any but God can bestow it!-Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity.

EFFECT OF THE BELIEF OF THE LOVE Of God.The unspeakable importance of believing God's love is obvious from this, that, as soon as a cordial belief that, through the propitiation offered up on our behalf by his beloved Son, God is reconciled to us, and forgives us all our iniquities, and regards us with complacency as the children of his love; as soon as a cordial belief of this glorious truth is shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Ghost, gratitude to the God of our salvation is immediately implanted there, and becomes henceforth the very soul of our souls; the seminal principle of all acceptable obedience; the germ from which grow all the fruits of righteousness and true holiness; the fountain from which all gracious affections and dispositions, all renewed tastes and tempers flow. From this divine fountain, thus opened in our hearts, flows an inextinguishable abhorrence of sin; for when God is sincerely loved, we must hate sin, the abominable thing which he hates, and which is the very concentration of enmity against himself, rebellion against his authority, ingratitude for his loving-kindness, and hatred of all he holds dear; sin, whose unutterable hatefulness is so awfully written in the agony and bloody sweat, the cross and passion, of God's well-beloved Son. Surely, if there

Such is the view of our Church. If" a man, either by reason of extremity of sickness, or for want of warning in due time to the curate, or for lack of company to receive with him, or by any other just impediment, do not receive the sacrament of Christ's body and blood," the minister is to comfort him in the following manner, which has long been customary in the English Church. "The curate shall instruct him, that if he do truly repent him of his sins, and stedfastly believe that Jesus Christ bath suffered death upon the cross for him, and shed his blood for his redemption, earnestly remembering the benefits he hath thereby, and giving him hearty thanks therefore, he doth eat and drink the body and blood of our Saviour Christ profitably to his soul's health, although he do not receive the sacrament with his mouth."-Rubric, Visitation of the Sick.

be any one truth revealed in Scripture with such clearness that he who runs may read it, it is, that the love of God and the love of sin cannot dwell together in the same breast.- Rev. Hugh White's Introductory Essay to Bonnet's Family of Bethany.

HUMAN PRIDE.-What clearer proof of darkness on the mind of man, than his exalting himself at the expense of God's glory; and yet is he not constantly doing thus? One is vaunting of the dignity of human nature, as if mankind were a superior set of beings, independent of God; and herein he is setting up his puny judgment against that of his Maker, who declares of such beings, "there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Another boasts of the rectitude of his will, and the uprightness of his disposition, and is puffed up with his imaginary excelling virtue; but God, who made man perfect, declares of him as a fallen creature, and of those born of him, that the imagination of man's heart is only evil, and that continually. And where is the rectitude of that will which is in opposition to the will of God? or the uprightness of that disposition which is dissatisfied with the dispensations of the Almighty? Another is looking to himself, and cries, I have a good heart; but where is the goodness of that heart, which God, the Searcher of hearts, declares to be deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked?-Rev. J. W. Peers.

Poetry.

STANZAS.

BY MISS EMRA.

(For the Church of England Magazine.) "The Lord hath need of them."-Matt. xxi. 3. O WORDS of wonder! Saviour, can it be, Thine own hands' works are needful thus to thee? What didst thou need when sojourning on earth? One of the brute creation, little worth,

To bear thee on thy way. What didst thou need?
With lowly wonder shall thy children read,
A rest the well beside-a fig to eat-
A little water to refresh his feet-
Draught from the well his burning thirst to slake-
The floor of some poor barge his bed to make -
A pillow for his head. Were these the things
Needed awhile by Him, the King of kings?

---

What did he need God's counsels to fulfil ?
Christian, reply, with deeper reverence still:
From all earth's boundless wastes and forests wide,
One cross of wood there to be crucified-
A crown of thorns-a robe of mockery's die-
All to fulfil the ancient prophecy.

Yes, it must be fulfilled. He needed all;
The dying thirst; the vinegar and gall;
The hand of friendship that, mid twilight's gloom,
Should take him from the cross, and lay him in the
tomb.

But this is past; and all heaven's hosts once more
Throng round their King in rapture to adore;
Blest, self-existent, with a crown of light,
A robe of glory, and an arm of might,
What needest thou? The feeble ones of earth
Thine to become by new and heavenly birth.
O, ask we what he needs? We dare reply,
The tear of penitence, the suppliant's sigh.
Christian, thy Lord has need of thee. Awake!
And bear and suffer all things for his sake.

He needs thy all; thy body, spirit, soul,—
All to be subjected to his control:

Thy thoughts, thy memory, speech, and song, and lyre,

Bring all to him, that he may all inspire:
O give not up thyself to aught beside;

He needs thee, who for thee was crucified.
What would He have, heaven's harmony to swell?
Thy voice of praise, the history thou canst tell.
O, can it be, his bliss is not complete
Till every ransom'd one has claim'd his seat,
Till every voyager the wave has past,
And every crown before his feet is cast?

And hast thou need of us? Lord, let us see
Our infinite, unceasing need of thee.

ISRAEL OUR WARNING.*
THE ancient Church of Israel shows
Like beacons on a fatal strand,
To mark our danger and our woes,
When, rushing on, our vessel goes,
Regardless of the pilot's hand.
Rescu'd by miracle, sustain'd

With angels' food in deserts wide,
E'en while the gushing rock they drain'd,
For Egypt's flesh-pots they complain'd,
For quails they lusted, ate, and died.
Their robes unrent, their shoes unworn,
Rebels and wanderers many a year,
Forgetting Sinai's awful morn,
Their promis'd land and God they scorn,
And Baal's impious altars rear.

Thus in the wilderness they died,

Nor reach the land they strove to gain;
Like them, by covenant allied
To God, and with temptations tried,
How shall we 'scape rebellion's stain?
Jesus! on thee our hopes rely;

While, in the confidence of prayer,
We view thy banners lifted high,
The serpent's poison we defy,

Nor lust, nor murmur, nor despair.
Like Israel's do our conflicts seem?
Superior aid to us is given;
We drink salvation's copious stream,
We walk in truth's unclouded beam,
Not Canaan is our home-but heaven!

Miscellaneous.

MRS. WEST.

GAMBLING.-This vice is not confined to the metropolis; but, like every other species of vice, extends itself through the country. And when all the various species of gaming which are practised, from betting on the race-course to tossing up at a public-house, are taken into the account, it will be found very generally to prevail, though "it is an offence (says Blackstone) of the most alarming nature, tending, by necessary consequence, to promote public idleness, theft, and debauchery, among those of a lower class; and among See the Epistle, Ninth Sunday after Trinity.

persons of a superior rank it hath frequently been attended with the sudden ruin and desolation of ancient and opulent families, an abandoned prostitution of every principle of honour and virtue, and too often hath ended in self-murder." In proof of this, let the following fact, not generally known, but the truth of which can be well attested, sink deep into every heart. Several persons were found in a room, in the neighbourhood of Holborn, playing at cards. This, indeed, is no uncommon practice; but they-as if to shew to what a depth of degradation vice can sink the human mind, and to what extent it can blunt even the common feelings of humanity-they were found around the dead body of one of their companions, which body they used as a table, and upon which they were actually found shuffling the cards.

INEFFICACY OF INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION.-It has been supposed that it is for the want of education (by which is now usually understood mere intellectual cultivation) that persons become criminal, and continue in a guilty course. But your chaplain finds daily, that those whose intellects have been most cultivated are generally the most depraved. Three of the best so educated now in prison, and the most reputably connected, have been committed, one eight times; another, seven or eight; and a third, twice. Sullivan and Jordan of Custom-house notoriety, Greenacre, and the Cato-street conspirators (and, out of 130,000 prisoners who have passed under his care, the chaplain could mention many similar cases), had all received this sort of intellectual training, and possessed considerable powers of mind. This shews that it is not the want of intellectual cultivation, but of moral principle, that fills our prisons, and prevents reform among their inmates.-Report of Duties, &c. by the Chaplain of the New Prison, Clerkenwell.

THE RESTORATION. -When Hugh Cressy, who became a convert to Popery, in the fervency of his zeal for the Church within whose pale he had introduced himself, insulted the Church of England "for not so much as pretending to one miracle, not so much as the curing of a tertian ague, to testify that our Reformation was pleasing to God;" Lord Clarendon replied, "we have not many miracles to boast of; and very good Catholics think they boast of too many, and would be glad to be without the mention of most of them. And I do believe that very many pious men of his Church do believe that the restauration of the Church of England from that dust and ruins to which the barbarous impiety and sacrilege of the late rebellion had exposed it, and in which the Roman Catholics (his majesty's own subjects) more delighted and triumphed to see it almost buried than any other Catholics did, is a greater miracle of God's mercy and power, and, if we make ourselves worthy of it, even a testimony of his being pleased with it, than all of those, of which they brag so much, are an evidence that he is pleased with what they do."

From "Young Men; or, an Appeal to the several Classes of Society in their behalf." By the Rev. Stephen Davies, B.C.L. 12mo. Hatchards, 1838.-Contains striking illustrations of the temptations to which young persons of both sexes are exposed,

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HEAVEN CONSIDERED AS THE GROWTH AND EFFECT OF A HOLY CHARACTER. BY THE REV. J. N. PEARSON, M.A. Principal of the Church Missionary Institution, and Evening Lecturer of St. Mary, Islington. THAT nothing is comparatively of consequence to us but to attain heaven, is an axiom with all real Christians. Indeed, mere common sense is constrained to allow it, as soon as solid reasons are shewn to exist for expecting an eternal state of retributive good and evil. Yet, after all, what practical hold has a truth, confessedly so momentous, on the bulk of those who profess the faith of the Gospel? Are they seeking the inheritance of glory, as an object of which the transcendent value casts all secular concerns into the shade? Or must it be admitted, that to the majority of those about us, this great estate would seem to have few attractions? Assuredly the world to come is not that world for which people in general " rise up early, and so late take rest, and eat the bread of carefulness." They even "think scorn of that pleasant land," as the Hebrews did of the literal Canaan. And the reason of this strange feeling is, that, for want of due attention to the statements of inspired men, they give no hearty credit to the report concerning it. They have not in spirit ranged through its length and breadth, nor dwelt on the multitude and variety of its treasures and blessings. They have not surveyed it as a country in which to secure a home betimes is of the last importance to every pilgrim. If ever they have been induced to look towards it, it has been with a hasty and listless glance, as to a world with which they have no pre

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sent concern, and which is curtained with impervious darkness. Too often it is descried for the first time by an illumination, that takes place at the period of life when our day is nearly ended, like those distant coasts, which are so situated as only then to become visible to us, when the sun is almost sunk below our horizon.

Now, such indifference to our own great business cannot, it is manifest, be charged on the truly religious. For every sincere believer of the Bible is in earnest; and earnestness is the reverse of indifference. And yet it is possible for those who are serious in religion to be so far mistaken concerning the nature of heavenly bliss, as to fall into mistakes about the way of arriving at it, that could hardly fail to affect most deeply their spiritual welfare. Nor is this, it may be feared, uncommon. Unquestionably there are many who take up with notions, to which Scripture lends no sanction, of the blessedness that awaits the good, such notions, indeed, as tend to lower the character of the Almighty, and to damp that ardour for growth in holiness which it highly concerns us to cherish.

Let us examine this point. Is it not very generally supposed that future blessedness is a recompense, wisely no doubt, yet arbitrarily, annexed by our moral Governor to a religious life? The figurative language in which the glories and felicities of paradise are depicted, in some passages of Scripture, has run away with lively fancies, and led to the error I am anxious to correct. In our tender years the mind is fed with descriptions, not a little captivating to a childish imagination, and even to maturer minds, of the

I

gates, its jewelled pinnacles, its glittering turrets; of the throne of light surrounded with quiring seraphim, and with the palmbearing host of the redeemed; of the river of God, and the tree of life; of nuptial banquets, and white garments, and radiant crowns, and perpetual day; with the utter exclusion of pain, and sickness, and fatigue, and disappointment, and death, or whatever else could dim the brightness of a scene so noble, and mar the pure harmonious joys of so august an assembly.

Now it is manifest that pictures like these, drawn from the page of scriptural prophecy, and assumed to be an almost literal account of the celestial state, could not awaken a suspicion that the future portion of the saints is essentially connected with their present attainments in godliness. Taken in the letter, they would be thought to indicate a recompense, in which paternal kindness and royal munificence are vividly marked, but which has nothing in it that answers to our sublimer notions of God, as a being who is infinitely happy in himself because he is infinitely holy, and whose way of bestowing happiness on the creatures he formed in his own likeness, is by making them, after their sort and capacity, partakers of his divine nature. It is true that, in our riper age, and as we experience the Divine life increasingly in our souls, we come to attach a more spiritual meaning to such terrestrial images as the Holy Ghost has condescended to employ; and our minds rise up to conceptions more agreeable to a world, of which it is transcendently the nature to be an abode of righteousness. Yet, not without a severe effort do we emerge from the slough of carnal fancies. They cling to us with an intractable pertinacity; and after we have advanced so far as to divest the human imagery of the literal sense we had erroneously attached to it, it remains (and the task is far from easy) to clothe it with its true and spiritual attributes.

But not with a human torch can the mysteries of heaven be explored. None but the King of glory can inform us what it is that makes the bliss of glorified spirits. In his light alone can we see light. And the disclosures he has vouchsafed us concerning the future state, although quite insufficient to satisfy curiosity, as being little more than occasional hints and scanty notices, are yet of great practical value, by throwing a clear light on the fundamental principle, that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Now this implies more than that a specific line of conduct shall have a definite result. It means, that the future harvest shall cor

sure. What is the doom pronounced on the unjust? That he be unjust still. What is the blessing awarded to the holy? That he be holy still. In which judicial sentence it is not obscurely intimated, that vice itself I will be the direct instrument of torture, and holiness of comfort and joy, hereafter. The misery of the reprobated, and the happiness of the accepted, after their probation is closed, will arise from their respective characters,― the one radically evil, the other radically good, having thenceforth unbounded scope for growth and expansion. To the wicked, as to the righteous, there is what David terms a "way everlasting:" the one leading constantly further from God, and consequently into depths of woe lower and lower; the other leading towards God, and so conducting to height above height of intellectual and spiritual improvement and fruition.

Thus I understand that sentence of the great apostle, who seems to have been indulged with a most perspicuous view of the nature of Gospel salvation; "He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." St. Paul is careful to represent everlasting life, not as a benefit artificially associated with a religious behaviour, but as the spontaneous and genuine effect of that spiritual life which is derived out of Christ into all the members of his mystical body, and continues to gain force and expand through all eternity. It is not, I repeat it, a reward that has no physical and necessary relation to its subject, and may therefore be changed at pleasure for any other token of Almighty favour. This is not the nature of heavenly happiness. Oh, no! It is the continuation, the ripeness, the perfection of a divine principle already lodged in the Christian's heart, but requiring a more genial clime than is found below for its complete and energetic development.

Thus it is that "righteousness tendeth to life." Even in its initial state this property of it is apparent. Great as is the disorder of this fallen world, to an extent that largely interferes with moral sequences, it is still the obvious tendency of virtue and good conduct to generate happiness, while distress and suffering are the natural consequences of vice and bad conduct. This appears to be the original law of our nature; and what is a law of nature but a divine ordinance? It is clear from the opposite tendencies of moral qualities specifically different, looking only at their present feeble and irregular manifes tations, it is clear that our Maker's intention, though he suffers it to be partially counteracted, is this, that men should be happy or