PUBLIC AFFAIRS. THE month which has just elapsed has not been conspicuous for any very remarkable events which have actually transpired either at home or abroad. There have been neither wars nor rumours of wars which deserve chronicling, nor any fearful national calamities to perplex and distress. It has been a period of peaceful progress, during which many important measures have been elaborated which may probably yet be productive of serious consequences for good and for evil. We would fain take a hopeful view of those which concern ourselves. In the House of Lords, two important measures have been dealt with. The Naturalization Bill has passed through Committee: we hope it will relieve the country from the difficulties in which adherence to medieval laws and practices not adapted to the present age, and to a country whose colonies are great nations, have more than once involved us. Lord Shaftesbury's Bill for the reform of our Ecclesiastical Courts has been postponed till after Easter; we trust this judicious and muchneeded measure will be brought to a successful issue. In the House of Commons the Irish Land Bill has met with general acceptance. As the second reading has been carried by 412 against 11, the measure may now be considered as virtually disposed of. Subsequently, a Bill has been introduced for the preservation of peace in Ireland. The speech of Mr. Chichester Fortescue was, from the bare recital of the facts alleged in support of it, well-nigh a condemnation of the Government of which he is a conspicuous member, for not having, at an earlier period, interfered to check the reign of terror which prevails in that afflicted country. As the Government Education Bill has been fully considered in our pages this month, we need not comment further upon it, except to notice with extreme regret the bitter hostility towards the Church manifested by those who profess to be in the House the representatives of the Nonconformists. Two other Bills deserve a passing notice as affecting the Church of England. One is Mr. Hibbert's Bill "for the relief of persons admitted to the office of priest or deacon in the Church of England, and desiring to relinquish the same." Provided careful provision be made that those who at a mature age and by their deliberate act seek such relief shall be completely inhibited from resuming their original profession, we do not see serious objection to a well-considered measure for this object. The clergy would thus be weeded of many who have mistaken their vocation, and of some who are an open scandal to it. But we would earnestly deprecate any measure which after a few years would return upon the Church a swarm of briefless barristers, unsuccessful place-hunters, bankrupt speculators, and wine merchants who may have been unfortunate in business. We cannot ourselves understand what that portion of the Church can be which would wish to receive back such adventurers, and for whose benefit a clause is introduced into the Bill. The sooner it is expunged the better. The other measure is that proposed by Mr. Morgan, and termed the "Burials Bill." Practically, we believe the grievance complained of to be merely a sentimental one; it need not have been even that, if a few isolated clergymen had been discreet and conciliatory. We cannot augur well of a joint ministration in cemeteries, judging by the virulence displayed by the advocates of Dissenters in the House, to which we have already been constrained to advert; nor do we see why churchyards (we mean those at present in use), given by churchmen for church folk, should be interfered with. Abroad the most noticeable fact deserving of record is the letter written by the Emperor of the French to M. Ollivier. It would seem impossible for any one more frankly to accept the position of a constitutional sovereign, and we sincerely trust that the great nation over which he rules will heartily second the good will of their sovereign, and use without abusing the liberty which he places at their disposal. Unfortunately the trial of Prince Pierre Buonaparte for murder at Tours, and the duel fought in Spain by the Duke of Montpensier, disclose such revelations of ungovernable and sanguinary passions pervading those who ought to be the chief upholders of order, that we cannot augur favourably of the prospects of nations among whose chief leaders wild fury rages with such ferocious and bloodthirsty animosity. The Ecumenical Council is still sitting and deliberating. Two important letters have proceeded from France. One from Count Daru, threatening withdrawal of the French garrison if the projects of the Pope are persevered in; the other, the dying utterance of the celebrated Count Montalembert protesting against the personal and separate infallibility of the Roman Pontiff. We do not imagine that either will seriously arrest the progress of the infatuation which is possessing the Pope and his advisers; but they are not the less significant and important. If Romanism were not a religion out of whose ceremonialism spirituality has long since been evaporated, the unprofitable mummery wherein the Grand Penitentiary rubbed ashes on the Pope on Ash Wednesday, and warned him, "Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris," might, especially at this juncture, not have been without its most appropriate and solemn significance. As it is, Pius IX. will probably pay as little attention to it as Roman generals did to the slaves who whispered similar counsel into their ears as they were being borne along in triumph up to the Capitol. [WE are enabled to furnish a further instalment of sketches under the above title, with which we have been favoured by a highly valued correspondent, and we commend them to the attention of our readers.-ED.] IV. THE LOAN OF SERMONS: OR, PREACH FAITH TILL "My visit to-day has rather a singular object," said a lady friend of the Good Pastor, "and it is one that possibly may excite your surprise; but when you have heard my tale you must decide whether you can grant me my request. "I have a very dear and pious friend, who lives with her brother, a clergyman, who is far from being a person of religious character; in fact, he spends his time chiefly in the sports of the field and the ordinary pursuits of fashionable life, and he expects his sister to have a sermon ready for him, neatly and plainly written out, every Saturday night, which he preaches on the following Sunday in his village church. "My friend, not wishing to put into her brother's hands copies of printed sermons, has obtained the loan of manuscript sermons from pious clergymen who have been induced to lend them for this purpose. Encountering much difficulty, however, in this matter, she has sent me to you; believing that, as you have been for some years an extempore preacher, you must have many old sermons by you of which you now make no use. Could you therefore trust me with some of these for this kind and good object?" "And pray, Madam, what is the name of your friend, and who is the clergyman who is thus so much indebted to a pious sister's labours ?" "That is precisely my difficulty," replied the lady; "the extreme delicacy of the affair demands perfect secrecy. It would be painful, and perhaps mischievous, for the dramatis persona in this transaction to be acquainted with each other. No question is ever asked by the brother regarding the authorship of the sermons: possibly he thinks them the production of his sister's own pen; and all I can say is, that if you will entrust me with the MSS., and be content never to know where they are preached, I will promise, on my part, that as soon as they have been preached the copies shall be destroyed, and the originals returned to you." The "Good Pastor" was a little perplexed by the novelty of this proposition; but, as his custom was, turning his thoughts inward and upward for a few minutes, and reflecting that this might be a channel of usefulness to many souls unknown to him, he consented, and the lady departed with her budget of manuscript sermons. For a considerable time-it might be for a year and half or two years-this process was continued. Then an interval occurred, rather longer than usual, when the Good Pastor's lady friend appeared again with her budget of returned sermons, and, tendering many thanks, with unusual warmth added, "And now, my dear Pastor, I shall not have occasion to trouble you again; and when I tell you the reason, you will perhaps never regret that you granted me my singular request. The facts are these. Although my friend ventured at first to soften some strong expressions, and to qualify and explain others in your sermons, her brother began to complain that he did not like this batch of sermons-wondered whose they were said she must cut them shorter, &c. &c., or he could not preach them. Circumstances, however, compelled him to continue this system of supply, and, at first sorely against his will, he continued to preach them. After a while, his sister perceived a very remarkable change in his feelings on religious subjects. Instead of avoiding them, he sought occasion for conversing with her on personal and spiritual topics, until at length it became obvious that an entire change had taken place in his heart and life: his hunters were sold, his dissipated habits were thrown off, his parish became the seat of his home-interests, until he avowed his determination to lay aside this idle habit of preaching another man's sermons. And now, my dear Pastor, that sister has the pleasure of listening to the pure and simple tale of Gospel love from the lips and from the heart of that brother who, as she believes, learned those truths from these very sermons which you so kindly lent her. Do you now repent of your rashness, my Pastor, in yielding to my request ?" "No, indeed," replied the Pastor, much moved by this narration; "but I should dearly like to know my spiritual child in the flesh." "But that is exactly what you will never know in this world. Pastor, it cannot be !" "Then this is one of those blessed things which I am not to know now, but which I shall know hereafter!" Amen, if it be His will! How blessed thus, unconsciously, to be permitted to do his work! Surely, "the wind bloweth where it listeth, and we hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit!" V. THE GOOD PASTOR AND THE COUNTRY SQUIRE. The Good Pastor was travelling by railroad, and, being much pressed for time, was dotting down notes in his common-place book with reference to an important subject which he had on hand. His two companions, apparently gentlemen, and persons of some intelligence, had relapsed each into his book or his meditation, road-side station a blustering, noisy, pretentious Country Squire, booted and spurred, and wielding a portentous hunting whip, was added to their number. First he attempted to get the quiet gentlemen into conversation; but finding little congenial with his tastes, he attacked the Pastor. "You seem busy, Sir, writing-it looks like something for publication." "You are right," rejoined the Pastor, "it is so." "May I ask the subject, without impertinence? " "Education!" "Ah, education; we have too much of that already." "Indeed, Sir! Not perhaps too much of religious education?" "I don't know about religion. I think the poor children's heads are crammed with a great deal of useless stuff out of the Bible which they cannot understand." "Probably there may be much in the Bible which none of us can fully understand." "Nor believe either," said the Squire. "Not believe?" said the Pastor." "No; I say No. Who, for instance, can believe that a man could live and say his prayers in a whale's belly?" at the same time bursting into a hoarse laugh. "Excuse me, Sir," replied the Pastor, mildly, "but the author of that book is a great and benevolent friend of mine, and I cannot suffer his writings to be so rudely condemned without a word in their defence will you allow me to ask, did you ever read the Bible?" "Read the Bible, Sir; of course I have." “What! : have you ever read it through?" "I cannot say particularly for that; but of course I read it when I was a boy, and my mother taught it me." Might I ask when you read it last ?", "At church, I suppose, the last time I happened to be there; but I don't understand being catechized in this way." "You must pardon me, Sir, for further saying that I cannot allow you to speak thus contemptuously and irreverently of a Book |