good cause and as much reason on their side, as those who threw open Freemason's Hall that year to the mothers and daughters of England. We are told that on that occasion "so vast was the crowd, and so great the pressure, that many persons of distinction were prevented from taking a share in the business of the day by the utter impracticability of obtaining admittance." To those who are familiar with the aspect of Exeter Hall in the first week of May, it is difficult to realize what must have been the former condition of things, or what could have given rise to doubts and fears.

Upon the conduct and management of such meetings we do not feel that it is necessary we should offer any comment. As a rule (we are speaking of those which are commonly reputed Evangelical societies) they are marshalled by those who bring mature wisdom and lengthened experience to the task, and we have seen judicious alterations introduced when the altered circumstances of modern times imperatively require the change. It is sometimes the fashion to decry the ability of the speakers on these occasions, but we cannot admit that the object of such meetings is to display oratorical power. Even if it were so, which it is not, we might, after a pretty lengthened experience, assert that probably more good speaking is to be met with in Exeter Hall than in more pretentious assemblies; but the discussion of such questions is quite beside the mark. It ought to be sufficient that plain and lucid statements are made, enforced with earnest appeals to the heart and conscience. If God has bestowed on any of His servants, as he did upon Wilberforce, further gifts, a noble opportunity is afforded for employing them to His glory.

We would rather venture to suggest a few thoughts to those who attend these meetings. Believing, as we do, that it is in the success of these mighty institutions that the strength of Evangelical Christians resides, we wish we could induce them to consider that they are not, or ought not to be, only hearers. They may not, and could not, all be speakers or managers; but they may all be pleaders and intercessors with Him who is able to crown every effort of man, even the feeblest, with success. If hundreds-might we not say thousands ?-who gather into London, animated with interest for the causes they have at heart, would remember thoughtfully and prayerfully the solemn questions, the mighty issues, which are at stake when they interest themselves in the dispensation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and in what spirit holy service should ever be approached, we feel assured that there would be less murmuring and a larger blessing at the close of these anniversaries. Faults, feebleness, and imperfection will cleave to every work of man; but it is possible to view them as men do the spots

which travel across the sun's disc, which, it may be, diminish for a brief season, but do not obscure, still less annihilate, the radiance of the orb of day; and it is charitable-nay more, it is well and wise, so to view them. We do not say that, on such occasions, friends who have been separated for years may not gladly embrace the opportunity of social meeting, or that many other motives may not legitimately combine with the religious anniversary; but none ought to make these things the primary motive, and drop into Exeter Hall as casual visitants discharging what they conceive to be a duty due from them either to their own character or to some particular cause with which they are identified. Let them bear in mind the irrefutable answer which the success of these Evangelical institutions furnishes to those who would disparage the doctrines which animate the promoters of them, for, like "epistles known and read of all men," they attest the power which exists in Protestant Christianity; and all who in their own respective spheres are zealous for the truth as it in Jesus, should combine as one man, heart and soul, for their success. It is by "works and labours of love," and by abounding in them, that sympathy was drawn forth to those who upheld and taught Evangelical doctrine. Many were thus led, in former years, to enquire whence have these men these things? And now that many signs of the times are disastrous, and there are not wanting indications that the old formalism and old scepticism are gradually creeping over England once more, if Evangelical men would keep up spiritual life and warmth, they should draw closer together, and with more fervent prayer, more singleness of purpose, more entire devotion to good works, keep the plague from spreading amongst themselves, and so be, in their measure and degree, the saviours of their brethren. It is, moreover, in such gatherings as will be held as these remarks will be falling into the hands of our readers, that not only the strength, but the true grounds and means of union among Evangelical Christians are to be found. That is no rope of sand which knits together the hearts and souls of those who are combined in works of love, which are the fruits of a living faith in Christ. Union in the abstract may seem plausible, but union in the concrete, which disseminates the word of God broadcast over the earth, which preaches the Gospel in the uttermost regions which the foot of man has trod, which searches out the lowest haunts in which vice and misery seek their hiding places, commends itself to the heart and to the conscience as fully as it did to the mind of Him who went about doing good.

THE CHURCH OF IRELAND AND ITS NEW CONSTITUTION.

THE General Convention of the Church of Ireland has closed its first sittings, and published the acts and resolutions at which it has already arrived; so that we can now fairly judge of the new constitution which it proposes to establish. Six weeks of constant and earnest work have done much to repair the breaches which the Irish Church Act made in the walls of "the Establishment"; and the moderation and statesmanship which our brethren have exhibited in their new and trying circumstances, augur well for a happy and final completion of their work, when they meet (as they propose to do next autumn) to consider the important subject of ecclesiastical law and church tribunals, which they were unable to enter upon in their opening Session.

The

The assembly itself was a striking one, and comprehended all that was best and greatest in the rank, ability, and piety of the country. It may be safely said, that Ireland never before saw such a gathering of her truest and noblest sons. debates were not only able and eloquent, as might have been expected, but, on the whole, marked by moderation and good sense. It was not to be expected that, in a gathering of six or seven hundred Irishmen, with hearts stirred to their very depths, holding honest and independent opinions upon many important subjects, and most of them unaccustomed to such assemblies, there should not be some collisions; but, on the whole, the best features of a deliberative assembly were plainly marked, and whilst men fought bravely for their views and proposals, there was a general readiness to defer to the ascertained convictions of the majority, and to accept their conclusions with loyalty and respect.

One thing was pre-eminently apparent, namely, that the extremes of party were either unknown, or so weak as to be almost imperceptible. As some one remarked during the debates, extreme men on either side "might have been put in an omnibus ;" and it was a happy omen to see those who represented different shades of thought voting together in the same lobby, and working together for the common good. Unlike the divisions in the House of Commons, where every man's vote is pretty well known beforehand, and scarcely ever influenced by the debates, there was a thorough independence about the voting in the Convention, and very frequently an able and argumentative speech turned the scale and decided the question before the House.

Had the General Convention of the Church of Ireland never effected any other good, it accomplished a great work when it brought the members of the Church together face to face, enabled the clergy and laity to speak their minds to each other freely, and by bringing the Bishops prominently forward, made the people more thoroughly acquainted with their earnestness and worth. A hundred little jealousies and suspicions that seemed to threaten at the outset were scattered and dissipated before the assembly adjourned; and men who met as strangers separated as friends, feeling that their points of difference were few and unimportant, whilst their points of agreement were many and vital. Indeed, with one or two exceptions, the subjects of discussion were not matters of principle at all.

But to come to the results. The Declaration, which stands as the Preface to the new constitution, may be considered as the soul and spirit of the entire legislation which follows it. It was not that the Irish Church had any new profession of faith to make, or any old attachments to renounce; but it was felt to be important that, at such a crisis as the present, she should place before the Church and the world a clear and definite testimony that the change in her external relations to the State had not made any change in the great principles which she had heretofore maintained, but that both as regards doctrine and discipline she still held fast by the ancient lines of her constitution as a Catholic, Reformed, and Episcopal Church. The solemn Preamble with which she opens"In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen”— is followed by a passing but dignified allusion to the fact of disestablishment, and then proceeds to a statement of her belief in the authority and inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and her continued profession of the faith of Christ as professed by the Primitive Church. She next declares her determination to "minister the doctrine and sacraments and the discipline of Christ, as the Lord hath commanded, and to maintain inviolate the three orders of Bishops, Priests, or Presbyters, and Deacons in the sacred ministry.'

On this clause, we wish to observe, that it falsifies the prophetic utterances with which the "Saturday Review," and other papers, endeavoured a few months ago to prejudice the English mind against the sister Church, as if it were inclined to Presbyterianism. If there was any point upon which there was a thorough determination, it was this, that the Episcopal character of the Church should be maintained; and the few in the assembly who seemed disposed to retain episcopacy, and yet deprive it of its lawful influence and authority, were swamped in the overwhelming tide that opposed them.

And this adds emphasis to the fact, that when it was pro

posed to fix the meaning of the somewhat ambiguous word "Priest," by attaching to it the explanation "or Presbyter, though there was a large number who saw no necessity for the addition, and would not have thought of proposing it, yet when a question bearing so directly upon Protestant principle was once introduced into the debate, they voted for its insertion, and by an overwhelming majority declared that, with all their reverence for episcopacy, they repudiated the idea that their Church maintained a sacrificial priesthood.

The next clause in the Declaration was equally significant, and deserves to be recorded in the temperate but decided language in which it was drawn up :-" The Church of Ireland, as a Reformed and Protestant Church, doth hereby re-affirm its constant witness against all those innovations in doctrine and worship, whereby the primitive faith hath been defaced or overlaid from time to time, and which at the Reformation it did disown and reject."

On the subject of its doctrinal standards and formularies, the Church of Ireland has been at some pains (and for this we cannot blame her), whilst adhering to the standards which she has hitherto held in common with the Church of England, to maintain the fact of her own independence, both in regard to the adoption of them in past times in her own Synods, and her right to make any changes in them hereafter in her own lawful assemblies, which she may feel to be desirable. But whilst thus maintaining her independence, the tone of the debates, and the careful laws regulating the discussion and adoption of any such changes in future Synods, plainly indicate an unwillingness to depart in any material degree from the existing standards, and a resolution to make alterations difficult, though not impossible. Indeed, we observe in one enactment a desire to keep, as far as may be, in harmony with the Church of England in such matters; for it is provided that any unanimous recommendation of the Ritual Commission may be adopted by the Synod of the Irish Church, without the cautious and protracted preliminaries which are made imperative in case of all other changes.

The clause in which the Church of Ireland expresses her desire to "maintain communion with the sister Church of England, and with all other Churches agreeing in the principles of this Declaration," is aptly closed with a sentence which indicates a wholesome and generous tone of charity, well calculated to win sympathy for her amongst the Nonconformist bodies on both sides of the Channel. She "will set forward, as far as in her lies, quietness, peace, and love amongst all Christian people." One adventurous and somewhat strait-laced delegate ventured to suggest the propriety of holding out the