PREFACE. WE close a year filled with events more varied, more striking, and destined in their results to become far more important, than those of any previous year through which we have passed since our now venerable Magazine began its course. And we do not forget how many Administrations have risen and disappeared; nor that the "Christian Observer" was yet in the bloom of youth when the Peace of 1814 was concluded; and in the following year, when the battle of Waterloo was fought. But none of these great events have been followed up by consequences of the magnitude to which it was at the time supposed they must conduct us. Time has already swept most of these events into oblivion, or they survive only in the page of history, and in the recollections of our elder men. Disappointment followed them at home and abroad; Europe relapsed into a condition scarcely better than that from which she had emerged at the Revolution of 1789. The exiled Pope returned to Rome, and the most abject superstition reigned once more in Austria, Italy, and Spain. England did not attempt to conceal her indignation when she discovered that she had spent her blood and her treasure on thankless allies, who seemed to hate her the more because they felt that they were under obligations which they could never cancel, and which time would never efface. The "Holy Alliance" spurned her counsels, while they extinguished every spark of liberty whereever their influence extended. The Bourbons, as it was well expressed, soon showed that they had learned nothing, and forgotten nothing; the besotted Ferdinand of Spain, for whom such sacrifices of men and money had been made, insulted us with impunity; and spent his time in embroidering petticoats for the Virgin Mary. It seems scarcely possible that the events of the year now closing can, whether at home or abroad, ever lose their significance. At home we do not speak of a change of ministers, however unlooked for, or of a commercial panic, however distressing, or of the death of our Great Statesman, Lord Palmerston; England has often passed through similar trials, and righted herself again. If, however, the eloquence of Mr. Bright, and the clamour of his party for the Reform Bill, should prevail, and a manhood, or even a household, suffrage be conceded, the present constitution of England will be at an end, and a Democracy of the worst kind established. The mechanics will be the governing class; and they will always be subject to wild impulses, and to the dictation of heartless and designing men; otherwise, if left to themselves, we should have no fear of the consequences. But, further than this, the Irish Church is to be dealt with ; and unless its advocates in Parliament show more zeal, and a much deeper acquaintance with the subject, no doubt it will be destroyed.* We do not anticipate its immediate overthrow; it will not perish under the first assault. It is by sap and mine that the works seem likely to be carried. The Romish party of Ultramontanes must be propitiated. Cerberus must have his sop; for his bark is loud; and the Church of Ireland is to be thrown down to him to appease his hunger. We shall regard this as the most disastrous event, as regards the interests of Protestantism, which the Church of Christ, not only at home, but in other Protestant States, has received for centuries. The shameless desecration of the Lord's-day is scarcely less. a source of deep anxiety. It is now desecrated by men who profess to be religious; and even some of our bishops tell us *We earnestly recommend Dr. Christopher Wordsworth's History of the Irish Church, (price two shillings, Rivington and Co.) to the attention of the reader, that they do not wish for a Jewish or a Puritanical observance of it. We can only regret that one of our bishops, who lately made such observations, displayed so little historical knowledge. The Jewish Sabbath permitted our Lord and His disciples, on some errand of mercy, no doubt, to walk through the corn-fields. And if the disciples plucked a few ears of corn, and rubbed them in their hands and ate them, our Master, the Lord of the Sabbath, took no offence. The Puritan Sabbath was a day of holy relaxation. What a rest would it be to our cruelly over-burthened officials on the Brighton Railway to be allowed a Puritanical Sabbath! With what alacrity would they return to work on Monday, instead of coming back, as one of them said, "disheartened and utterly unfit for work." But we are taking a partial instance. The old landmarks are removed. The Church of England has already been drawn into a revolution. Even while we write, a leading organ of public opinion* tells its readers, with apparent satisfaction, that, although her creed remains unchanged, her doctrines are exploded. The practices first introduced by the leaders of the movement at Oxford were nothing more than is now to be met with in numbers of Churches all through the country. Add to this, that the language of the clergyman, and the very theological and ecclesiastical nomenclature, have changed. It is hardly the same religion that was preached when we were boys. The whole cycle of ideas which formed the religious character of the last generation seems to be ignored by their successors. New or revived doctrines are expressed in terms unheard of by the church-goer of the old times. In short, it is evident to every one who knows the Church of England, that the spirit, we might almost say the creed, of the clergy has changed. The great lesson which we of the Evangelical school have to learn is surely this: as men who firmly adhere to the doctrines of the Reformation and the ancient standards of the Church of England, we should still more earnestly cleave to God and cleave to one another. Our light should so shine before men *The Times, Nov. 3. that they should be obliged to confess that God is with us; and at the same time, merging all minor distinctions, we should walk together in hearty co-operation and cordial brotherly love. There has been far too little of this fraternal concord since the Evangelical body swelled, about thirty years since, beyond its ancient bounds, and outgrew or outlived the men, eminent in holiness rather, perhaps, than in learning or talent, who had been its leaders. We should then, with God's blessing upon us, be once more a powerful body; and whether we remained in the Church, or should be driven from it, an alternative which has now begun to be seriously contemplated, the dews of heavenly grace will descend upon us. Our cause, if not at home, yet elsewhere, is bright with promise; brightest where, but a short time since, the gloom was darkest, we mean in Italy; the popedom trembles, and evidently totters to its fall. Men read the Bible with avidity, and the priesthood have lost their influence. It will be a strange thing if, while England throws away her birthright, bought with the blood of martyrs, Italy should become a fountain of pure waters, whose refreshing streams shall once more revive the decaying piety of Protestant nations now lying under the awful censure which once fell from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, addressed to the Laodicean Church: "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would that thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." |