stated, and sustained by the clearest facts, I cannot but conclude that we are bound calmly and firmly to avow them before all the world, as a testimony of our allegiance to Jesus Christ. Will you then permit me to offer a few plain suggestions, which may not be unacceptable to your

numerous readers?

We do not pretend that the New Testament contains an arranged code of laws for the government of churches, any more than an arranged system of doctrines for their spiritual edification; but if we find specific enactments interspersed and enforced upon the churches, which relate to them as distinct communities, their want of systematic arrangement will, we may presume, be deemed perfectly immaterial by every right-minded Christian. Then, to ascertain the fact that church government is revealed in the New Testament, let it be recollected that the apostolic epistles sent to the respective churches were addressed to the various bodies of members, who were "called to be saints," "sanctified in Christ," "the saints and faithful brethren in Christ." These were the materials composing the apostolic churches, which is a point not to be overlooked. And let it be further recollected that the epistles contain numerous commands and admonitions, warnings and invitations, exhortations and threatenings; all of which are enforced upon the churches by considerations of unbounded and eternal moment. What, then, is the object of these inspired and reiterated enactments but the government of the churches? And who, with these facts before him, can for a moment doubt that the government of Christian churches is incorporated in the gospel?

In further confirmation of these interesting positions, we need only relate a few instances. The apostle, addressing the Corinthian church, said, "The Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel." "Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses." If an offending brother "neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican." Will it be necessary to remind the reader that these and numerous other enactments were promulgated expressly for the government of the churches of Christ? What could be more presumptuous than to affirm that there is no church government revealed in the gospel? Let us notice another instance. The apostle declares, "In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are

gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan: therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person." Here the reader will perceive we have a decisive enactment addressed to a Christian church for the regulation of its proceedings, and on a subject of a most solemn character. Here it is stated, that when the members of the church were "gathered together," having "the power of the Lord Jesus Christ," they were commanded, in his name, to adopt these decisive measures. And here the reader is furnished with two important facts, which, perhaps, few persons will be inclined to dispute that church government is expressly prescribed in the New Testament; and that this government is appointed to be administered by the collective body of the

members.

An opponent may urge, that this kind of church government would not comport with human convenience and the present order of things. But what have such convenience and such order to do with unreserved subjection to the sovereign authority and spiritual jurisdiction of Jesus Christ? Must his authority and jurisdiction be made to bow in subjection to the contrivance or convenience of man? Must the Saviour, who is the head of his church, and whose kingdom ruleth over all, be deprived of his essential attributes, and his church of his wise and merciful instructions, to accommodate the pleasure of mortals? The exercise of earthly policy and power, as the page of history shows, is both unsafe and unwarrantable in the government of Christian churches.

It will be recollected that there is an essential difference between things civil and things religious; and that each has its distinctive, legitimate province, without the least collision of interests. The governments of the world promulgate laws to regulate the conduct of man towards his fellow-men; but, by the utmost stretch of power, they are absolutely unable to regulate God's jurisdiction over souls, or man's responsibility to his Maker. These, which are absolutely beyond their province, are regulated by laws derived from Heaven, and sustained by spiritual and eternal sanctions. As religion is a personal concern between the soul and God, so it necessarily involves that personal responsibility from which no power on earth can release us, or even diminish our obligation. And it must be borne in mind that coercive interference with our

religion by human power or jurisdiction is an aggression upon the prerogative of God, as well as on the birthright of souls! The religion of Christ is promoted by enlightening the judgment and convincing the conscience, which are weapons widely different from those employed by earthly governments. When the governors at Jerusalem commanded the apostles "not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus," the servants of God once and again openly disclaimed their right of interference. "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye;" adding, "We ought to obey God rather than

men.

It must be admitted that the foregoing and other enactments of Scripture were well adapted to the apostolic churches; yet it is affirmed that they are inappropriate to churches in modern times! What is this but an impeachment of the wisdom and goodness of God? and what can be more insulting to the majesty and truth of his holy word? Our denominational principles are not only very little known, but also frequently misrepresented, which is too often followed by powerful measures to obstruct the progress of the gospel. It is a grave lamentation that corroding errors, irreligious formalism, worldly passions, and the power of wealth, mislead and enslave millions of our degraded countrymen; and these evils, at the same time, obstruct the faithful ambassadors of Christ from grappling with abounding iniquity, and from conducting all ranks of men to Christ and salvation. This state of things cannot be allowed to continue. The command is, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."

These

men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation." The gospel which they minister intended to be everywhere triumphant, by turning all ranks of men "from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God," that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them who are sanctified."

These observations, Mr. Editor, are intended for the benefit of uninformed but inquiring "church members," and for the diffusion of scriptural principles among our countrymen. The insertion in your wide-extending WITNESS may be useful to your readers, and will be gratefully esteemed by yours, Birmingham.

B. BROOK.

"HARMLESS FESTIVITY AND REAL ENJOYMENT."

To the Editor of the Christian Witness.

SIR,--Being a constant reader of the CHRISTIAN WITNESS, the article relating to "The Evangelical Alliance" has, of course, come under notice. In that article you refer to certain "facts," with a view to show that the " Alliance," as now constituted, "concedes in theory what it denies in practice," one of which relates to some remarks in a publication on "Christian Unity," by the Rev. F. S. Trotman, Rector of Stoke Goldington, &c., wherein he speaks of "cold indifference on the subject of religion" being insufficient to "originate Dissent" or to "build Dissenting chapels."

Now, Sir, (without intending it,) I feel that this gentleman has paid us a very high compliment. I happen to be the pastor of the only Dissenting church and congregation in the village of Stoke Goldington. Whether the reverend rector had us in view when he penned the above statement, I, of course, am unable to state; but certain it is that Dissent here does not owe its existence to "cold indifference on the subject of religion." For many years the village of which the reverend rector considers himself the head, was in a state of almost heathen darkness; and there is some reason to fear it would so have remained to this day, had not the daring spirits of a Bull, a Sutcliffe, a Hillyard, and others, "in the pride of their hearts," run counter to "constituted authority," and endeavoured to show "a more excellent way."

But I will not occupy your valuable time by entering into detail in matters of this description, my principal object being to mention another "fact," with a view to show the advocates of the "Alliance" how utterly impossible it is for us, as Dissenters, to submit to "constituted authority," and go hand in hand with a State Church.

In a village not 100 miles either from Stoke Goldington or Dallington, there was lately printed and published the following statement:

"A List of Amusements on Friday, June 5, 1846.

"The names of those persons (being residents in the parishes of Piddington, Hackleton, Horton, or Preston) who wish to try for the following prizes, must be given in by Saturday, May 30, to the Churchwardens, who will show the regulations to be complied with.

"1. A Hurdle Race, with nine hurdles, for Men. 1st prize, a little pig; 2nd, neckerchief; 3rd, pocket handkerchief.

"2. A Wheelbarrow Race, for Men from forty upwards. 1st prize, a man's smock; 2nd, neckerchief; 3rd, pocket handkerchief.

"3. Climbing a Greased Pole, for Young Men from fifteen to twenty, who either are or have been in the Piddington Sunday-school. Prize, leg of mutton.

4. A Race for Women above twenty years of age, who have been in the Piddington Sundayschool. 1st prize, a gown; 2nd, parcel of tea; 3rd, handkerchief.

"5. A Race for Girls between fifteen and twenty, who are now or have been in the Piddington Sunday-school. 1st prize, a bonnet; 2nd, pair of stockings; 3rd, handkerchief.

"6. Bobbing for an Orange in a Tub of Water, for Girls under ten, who are in Piddington Sunday-school. Prize, a collar. The Proving of the New Bells will take place about half-past three o'clock. Prize for best ringers, £2; for the second, £1; for the third, 10s.

"7. A Wheelbarrow Race for Men between thirty and forty. 1st prize, a waistcoat; 2nd, neckerchief; 3rd, pocket handkerchief.

"8. Jumping in Sacks, for Men between twenty and thirty, who have been in Piddington Sunday-school. 1st prize, a spade; 2nd, neckerchief; 3rd, pocket handkerchief.

"9. A Hurdle Race for Young Men from fifteen to twenty, who are or have been in the Piddington Sunday-school. 1st prize, a hat; 2nd, neckerchief; 3rd, pocket handkerchief.

"10. A Race for Boys above ten, who are in Piddington Sunday-school. 1st prize, a cap; 2nd, neckerchief; 3rd, pocket handkerchief.

"11. A Race for Boys under ten, who are in Piddington Sunday-school. 1st prize, a jacket; 2nd, neckerchief; 3rd, pocket handkerchief.

"12. A Race for Girls from ten to fifteen, who are in Piddington Sunday-school. 1st prize,

a shawl; 2nd, parcel of tea; 3rd, pocket handkerchief.

"N.B. The Minister and Churchwardens being desirous on this occasion of promoting harmless festivity and real enjoyment, and aware that some strangers may be present, rely on their own parishioners to check any disorder which may arise from excess of drink, or other ill conduct in such strangers.

"Piddington, May 21, 1846."

Taking the qualifications into the account, the above would form an appropriate chapter to the Book of Sports. Surely the scholars of "Piddington Sunday-school" are a highly-favoured class, and may be regarded with envious feelings by their less honoured companions.

But can I form an "alliance" with a church which sanctions practices like these, and even calls them by the name of "real enjoyment?" Never! "I am for union with all that are united to Christ, and alliance with all that can and will ally themselves with me."

A LOVER OF GOOD MEN.

MRS. MARGARET BIRCH,

The late beloved Wife of the Rev. Henry Birch, Driffield, Yorkshire.

MARGARET BIRCH was born at Cotehill, Caldwell, a few miles from Greta-bridge, Yorkshire, and a short distance from the lovely village of Wycliffe, the birthplace of the great English reformer. She was married in January, 1843, and died on Thursday, April 16, 1846, in the same house in which she was born.

In her early years she was placed under the tuition of a clergyman, from whom she received the rudiments of an education which she afterwards finished at a ladies' school at Newcastle-uponTyne. To the instructions thus received she subsequently added such theological and religious knowledge as made her a most intelligent and agreeable companion. Her taste for sacred literature was a peculiar feature in her character. Indeed she had little or no relish for what is usually designated light reading. A clear and vigorous mind well qualified her for accessions of information. Her acuteness in detecting an error, and pointing out the truth, was often most pleasing and beneficial. Her mental powers had been expanded by close attention to such works as Dwight's System of Theology, the writings of Thomas Scott, Witherspoon, Bishop Newton, and Drs. Dick and Vaughan. Some of these works were

For

not merely read, but studied, as her copious notes of Dwight show. several years she was a constant reader of the Eclectic Review. She read Foster's Essays, the late Dr. M'All's Discourses, Parsons' Sermons, and some of the productions of Dr. Harris, with intense, almost enthusiastic delight. Of the works of the latter, the "Great Teacher" was to her the chef-d'œuvre. Several passages marked by her own hand evince her taste for what was beautiful in style, original in idea, or elevated in piety. On prac tical religion, the "Saint's Rest," the "Christian Contemplated," and the "Christian Professor" were her standards. On subjects relating to female character and kindred topics, Miss H. More and Mrs. Ellis were her guides.

Thus, well furnished with sacred knowledge, few topics of theological inquiry could arise but with which she was more or less familiarly conversant. But she never paraded her acquirements. Her reading, by teaching her how much was to be learnt, which it was impossible for her ever to acquire, had made her diffident, not vain. hence she invariably sought the shade, and shrank from observation, instead of courting it by the most distant approach to display. She disliked show of every kind, but especially in literature and religion. She thought deeply and spoke little, except to those with whom she was most familiar; to

them she was frank and unreserved as a child. She rarely made her own spiritual state the topic of remark. In the company of great talkers on their own religious experience she was always uncomfortable; for she thought the bosom a shrine too sacred, and religious experience a subject too delicate, for common disclosure.

In

She was a refutation of the opinion held by some, that love of books is incompatible with the due discharge of family duties. All acquainted with her well know that she was thoroughly domesticated, and that in her house and dress she was a pattern of order and neatness. her household affairs she was systematic, and a most careful economist of time : hence she was never driven by her work, but was generally ahead of it. Sometimes in an evening she would say with a smile, "I have come up to Mrs. Ellis to-day," alluding to the remarks of that writer, in one of her works, on the " economy of time."

The native disposition of the departed was peculiar for its gentleness. It mellowed her character, and appeared in all her deportment. But while this disposition won her the esteem of the wise and kind, it made her most sensitively alive to any real or apparent unkindness, either to herself or those she loved. Desiring the welfare of all, she felt an injury the more from the consciousness that it was unprovoked and undeserved. Still, she cherished no resentment; but, as the stricken bird hides its wound beneath its wing, so she would draw over an ungentle action the veil of forgiveness and oblivion.

Her amiable and transparent qualities of character, before they were sanctified by piety, gained her the esteem of all who best knew her. It was, however, after her decided conversion to God, that her excellences were most conspicuous; not indeed for their glare, but for their soft, mild lustre. The strength of her understanding pleasingly contrasted with the feminine softness of her affections. Her love as a daughter was ever apparent in the unceasing concern she felt and manifested toward her surviving parent. Her tenderness as a wife is now most affectingly remembered by him who is the chief mourner at her loss. Her affection as a mother was judicious and tender; it was enhanced by the presentiment that, in the inscrutable ways of Providence, she would have to leave her babe to the care of others an event, alas! realized within two years of its birth.

...

The family of the deceased, without an exception, belonged to the Church of England. Her own early predilections were favourable to it. But several years ago it appeared to her a duty to dissent. The conflict of "flesh and blood" with stern principle was, for a while, severe; but the latter prevailed. She felt the force of the Saviour's words: "Whosoever, therefore, shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me: and he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Solemn and impressive words! With such declarations before her she felt compelled to obey the voice of conscience, even when it required her to come out of the pale in which she had been nurtured. After much inquiry and prayer, she entered the ranks of evangelical Nonconformity. But in this secession she was neither bigoted nor uncharitable. She honoured all who acted from conscience, whether in the Establishment or out of it. This homage to principle was most admired by those who best knew the sacrifice it cost her.

me.

Amongst the early causes which ultimately led to her public profession of the gospel, were occasional sermons at Barnard Castle from the lips of the late Rev. W. L. Prattman. But it was under the ministry of the Rev. R. Thomson, M.A., then at Staindrop, Durham, that she was united to the church of Christ by public profession. She regularly attended the preaching of the gospel at Staindrop, though it was five or six miles from her home. No evangelical ministry was nearer than this: hence, amid the snows of winter and the heats of summer, she constantly rode that distance to hear the gospel. In times of lax principle it is refreshing to contemplate the fact of a solitary female, of delicate mould, at pecuniary sacrifice and personal fatigue, thus yielding to the claims of conscience and of God. The intelligent ministrations of Mr. Thomson were held by the deceased in grateful remembrance, and were often alluded to in terms of praise. In a letter to her bereaved husband Mr. T. says, "During the five years of my labours at Staindrop, your late beloved wife, then Miss Wheatley, was a constant

attendant on my ministry, sat in our pew, and showed us no little kindness." After alluding to some proofs of that kindness, Mr. T. adds, "I have notes of two conversations I had with her prior to her admission to the church. The substance of these notes is, 'That her views of herself, of the way of salvation, and of the nature and duties of the Christian profession, were correct and scriptural; that her feelings and experience, though marked by no striking peculiarity, were simple and sincere; that she regularly maintained secret communion with God, knew the value of prayer, and had found an evil heart a hinderance in it; and that her views were very sound as to the evil of an Establishment, in mixing up the precious and the vile at the table of the Lord.' On the 2nd of November, 1834, she was publicly received, and sat down at the table. She was the first admitted by me. I addressed her from Gen. xxviii. 15, last clause: 'I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.' I doubt not she is now enjoying the full fruition of that precious promise.'

At this period the departed devoted herself to the benefit of the cottagers in the village adjacent to her mother's residence. She aided in procuring the use of a house, in which preaching services were occasionally held. She regularly visited the people with religious tracts, endeavoured to supply them with Bibles and Testaments, and, with the assistance of a female friend, managed the affairs of a clothing club for their benefit.

On her marriage in 1843 she was transferred from the church at Staindrop to that at Driffield. There her mild, unostentatious manners soon drew around her those friends who showed increasing regard for her in life, and who shed tears of sincerest sorrow at her death.

Of

In the services of the sanctuary she had great and uniform pleasure. sermons she was a most intelligent and discriminating hearer. But although she was pleased to hear great principles enunciated, or doctrines stated, or duties enforced, yet her preference was for an order of discourses which she used to designate "devotional," or such as directly tended to awaken those hallowed emotions which seek expression in the solemn utterances of prayer. Amongst the last sermons she ever heard was one from the words, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day.' Her conversation and heavenly frame of mind afterwards were most re

markable. Evidently she enjoyed the presence of the Lord of the day. Grace was on her lips, while celestial pleasure beamed in her tearful eye, and glowed in the native mildness of her features.

Her "peace in believing" was habitual. Neither in health, sickness, nor death, had she any of those extreme elations or depressions which some of the pious experience. Her sky, though never dazzling, was mostly clear and tranquil. Her settled peace no doubt in some measure arose from an intelligent apprehension of the great scriptural doctrine of a sinner's acceptance with God by the imputed righteousness of Christ. To this momentous subject she had given close and special attention. Her inquiries had been prompted by the perusal of Hervey's "Theron and Aspasio." Though she did not pledge herself to the adoption of every view contained in that work, yet it was the means of bringing the subject before her, and led to that examination and train of thought which issued in an enlightened and experimental acquaintance with the apostle's conclusion: "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Her habits of private devotion were nurtured with conscientious care. On returning from the sanctuary it was her practice to retire a few minutes to pray. Communion with God in the evening was not postponed until the time of retiring to rest, but an early hour was appropriated to that purpose, that all her energies might be fully alive to the solemn engagement. And as it is perhaps by trifling occurrences, more than by showy actions, that character in general is most truly developed, an incident relating to her devotional habits will not be irrelevant. One evening, at her usual hour, having risen from prayer, and opened the Bible, she was prevented from reading it by some unexpected occurrence. Afterwards, family worship and other affairs occupied her attention until the hour of rest. She retired; but in a few moments she suddenly started and rose again from bed, alluding at the same time to the circumstance which had kept her from taking the Bible at her usual time, and said that having on that account unhappily omitted it, she was getting up again to read it." Having, therefore, kindled a light, and thrown some gar ments loosely over her, she sat down and read the precious book of God. This incident, although trifling in itself, says

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