without scruple every thing which is not plainly prescribed by that word. In this respect Calvin stands in the same relation to Luther as Knox did to Cranmer. We need not dwell upon the decided, bold, manly character of all the Reformation movements in Scotland. Our readers know them already. They were worthy of a race of hardy mountaineers-sons of the brave men who, under Wallace and Bruce, encountered and repelled the gathered might of England-sons of those men who never for a day would yield up the rights of Scotland or the honours of her crown to a foreign invader. Wallace, Bruce, Knox, Melville, Henderson, and Welsh were all men of like natural character-fearless as their own mountain rocks, and as unyielding! And corresponding with these in Scotland there were Calvin and Zwingle in Switzerland. Germany had none such. Neither Luther nor Melancthon were like these mountaineers of the north and south. Even Luther had somewhat of timidity about him. His bearing at the Diet of Worms has been applauded; and justly too. It was noble and manly. Yet, somehow or other, one cannot help thinking that had Knox or Calvin been in his place, there would have been less nervous trepidation-more cool determination and self-possession. For Scottish Reformers were really the only ones that ever confronted monarchs face to face, and maintained unflinchingly the truth which they believed. In their case it was a direct personal collision with kings and princes-much more direct and personal than in other countries. Yet they maintained their ground. They compromised nothing. They spoke out their whole mind. Hence the decided character of the Scotch Reformation. And next to it in decision is the Swiss. In this respect Lutheranism lags far behind. It was never very decided, and hence the Reformation under it was never very thorough. It lacked much, both in doctrine and in discipline. D'Aubigné thus paints it—

"Lutheranism is a reformation of the church; Reform is a renewal of it, or the difference may be indicated, if desired, by merely changing an accent-Lutheranism is a Reformation, Reform is a Re-formation. Lutheranism took the church as it was, and contented itself with effacing its blemishes. Reform went to the foundation of the church, and built its edifice upon the living rock of the apostles. Whilst Luther, when he heard what Carlstadt was doing, writes-'we must keep in the middle path,' and rise up against those who overthrow the images, Carlstadt, the first Reformed, from 1521 boldly reforms the Church of Wittemberg, of which he was prevôt, abolishes in it the mass, the images, confession, fast days, and every abuse of Popery. Zwingle, almost at the same time, acts in a like manner at Zurich. And for what was done at Geneva, I shall content myself with transcribing the inscription which was for nearly three centuries, from 1536 to 1798, fixed upon the walls of our Hotel de Ville, and which expresses better than we can do the marked

character of Reform. It ought to have been restored since the jubilee of 1835, and placed in the church of St Peter; but that has not been done. Here it is—

"In the year 1535, the tyranny of Roman antichrist having been overthrown, and its superstitions abolished, the most holy religion of Jesus Christ was re-established here in its purity, and the church in a better order, by the extraordinary favour of God. And at the same time, the city itself having repulsed and put its enemies to flight, was freed, not without a marked interposition of Providence. The Genevese council and people have raised this monument, that the memory of these events might be perpetuated, and that a testimony of their gratitude to God might be handed down to their posterity.'

"What has been the result of this difference of character between Lutheranism and Reform?

"Two very distinct courses, and which, we notice here again, have each their good side. The course of Lutheranism is defensive, successive-the course of Reform is offensive, conquering. To Lutheranism belongs the principle of resistance, of passiveness-to Reform the principle of movement and of life." Pp. 40, 41.

pro

These two courses or tendencies of which he speaks above, have, as he remarks, cach their good side. And both of these are of unspeakable importance to the right constitution and successful gress of a church. In every sound community, whether ecclesiastical or civil, there must be, as he expresses it, the immobility of principle united to the mobility of life. These two antagonist tendencies are most useful-each in its own way. Lutheranism soon began to suffer from the excess of its immobility. Its reformation was never thoroughly accomplished. Luther saw this, and his latter days were clouded at the prospect. On the other hand, Reform, fixed in its principles, and definite in its aim, proceeded onwards in power. Calvin, Farel, Knox, and Zwingle, with the Bible in their hands, and dauntless God-inspired vigour in their hearts, went on in their career triumphantly, and died in peace, giving glory to God. From the death of their founders each of these churches took its peculiar way. Reform, that is, true primitive spiritual Scriptural Christianity, prospered and flourished. Lutheranism, instead of putting forth new life, began to ossify. It saw conservation in its bosom changed into stagnation.' It has been offensive towards Reform, but remains defensive towards the Pope; while Reform, on the contrary, stretching forth the hand of brotherhood to Lutheranism, takes openly and courageously the offensive against Rome.' Lutheranism does not care to enter into vigorous warfare with the Papacy. She will at least wait till she be assailed. Such is her principle of immobility-such is the stagnation which it has induced. Are the Reformed Churches thus timid and over-prudent? Do they thus shrink

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from war with Rome? Will they sit calmly down in their quiet abodes, and see the triple tyrant laying waste the fairest regions of the earth? No.

"Inspired by a holy love for souls and with a profound conviction tha Rome leads them to destruction, Reform, three centuries ago, seized the sword of the word, and began, with the Papal power, a war of life or death. Notwithstanding the constant and violent opposition of the most powerful European monarchs, notwithstanding the redoubled efforts of that hierarchy which drew the world after it, Reform, like little David, advanced against this gigantic Goliath, with nothing in its scrip but the well-smoothed pebbles of the word of God, and it has conquered through the name of the Eternal of armies. Unquestionably, I am grateful for all that has been done by Christian princes, and especially by the immortal Gustavus Adolphus. But that was rather a matter of princes, and perhaps the work of policy; with us it is rather a matter of the faithful, the work of faith. It was Reform which saved the Reformation in disastrous times, and it will still save it in the days in which we live.

"It is true, that it has saved it at the expense of its blood. Whilst the Lutheran church scarcely possesses a single martyr, our churches count them by thousands, and their fidelity has acquired for them the respect and admiration of the best Lutherans, the tender soul of the Speners and Zinzendorfs. In Switzerland, in Scotland, in England, and especially in Belgium and France, the Inquisition, the Papacy, their poignards and their scaffolds, have covered the soil of the Bible with the bodies of the slain. Reform has seen it, but it has not bowed its head. It has seen its children deliver up their blood with joy, looking to Jesus Christ, and it has held on its course." Pp. 44, 45.

Towards the close, in comparing the two churches, he turns aside for a moment to glance at their founders, Luther and Calvin. And in a single paragraph he has drawn their characters to the life:

"Luther was a German, Zwingle a Swiss; but nationality only occupied a secondary place in the great soul of Calvin; Christ and the church were all for him. He was neither a Frenchman, a Swiss, nor a Genevese-he was of the city of God. In quitting France, he sacrificed whatever he had that was most precious; and he never returned to the abode of his former idols to raise them anew. Undoubtedly he loved Geneva, the country of his adoption, but the great nationality reigned supreme over all lesser ones. Nothing was more insupportable to him than national egotism. Turning away from those narrow compartments in which each one wishes to encase himself, his eagle eye fixed itself unceasingly on the grand whole of the church. His colleagues of the canton strove to form a national Swiss church; but even that attempt appeared too mean to his capacious mind; and passing beyond rivers and mountains, he aspired unceasingly after the church universal. He knew no nation but the nation of holiness, and no people but the people of God." P. 53.

We have thus sketched this truly eloquent address. We commend it to the study of our readers. It will help to give them an

VOL. XVII. NO. IV.

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insight into the characters of existing churches and church principles, a thing most necessary in these days. We commend it also to them, that they may be thoroughly roused by it. We are not yet awake. The disruption has indeed given us an awakening shock, and has done much. But we need to be more thoroughly aroused. We need to be more in earnest in these earnest times. Sheathed swords, feebly grasped in half-slumbering hands, are not the weapons wherewith the legions of the Cross are to fight the battles of the Lord. Hear the author's closing appeal:

"Shall we forget our fathers, their principles, their struggles, their faithfulness, their blood? Whilst they took so much care to preserve Reform intact, in presence not only of the papacy, but also of all secondary shades of opinion, shall we lightly abandon the precious characters of their faith! Shall we walk up and down upon their graves, trampling their bones under foot, and scattering their ashes ?" P. 59.

Rome is awake, Oxford is awake, infidelity is awake, and shall the Churches of the Reformation slumber on? The cry of battle is already in the camp; and shall our armour be still unburnished and ungirded our weapons idle by our side? What are we living for? Is it for Christ alone? Is it for his Church? Is it for the salvation of dying souls around us? Or is it for self and for the world? It is high time to awake out of our sleep. Up, ministers of Christ! Up, the Master calls!

ART. II.-Sermons by SAMUEL WILBERFORCE, M.A., Chaplain to his Royal Highness Prince Albert, and Archdeacon of Surrey. London: James Burns. 1844.

MR WILBERFORCE is chaplain to his Royal Highness Prince Albert. Whether appointed to this office on account of his reputed piety and talents, or the affability and elegance of his manners, or simply through political influence, we have no means of knowing; nor shall we stay to raise a question about the matter. All we are supposed to know of him is, that he is chaplain to Prince Albert, and as such may be supposed to have considerable influence in the royal household,―nay, over royalty itself. A station like his gives him access to royalty in many ways; and much, not only of a monarch's, but of a nation's welfare, may depend upon the way in which this access is improved, this influence employed.

In truth, with all the democratical contempt for royalty which prevails amongst us, there is much in our national character which renders us rather flexible in adapting ourselves to a monarch's example, and being swayed by a monarch's character. In spite of the

small amount of direct influence which royalty can exercise in these days, there is a large circle within which its indirect and distant influence is distinctly felt either for good or for evil. The fooleries of James VI., the superstitious bigotry of Charles I., and the infidel licentiousness of Charles II., all told upon the nation's character, and wrought out their results in the nation's history. Nor is it at all wonderful that it should be so even in our day. That individual about whom we are daily reading and hearing, in whose movements all ranks take such an interest, who occupies such a prominent and exalted station in the realm, who is encircled with the crown of a kingdom the mightiest and most glorious that the world ever saw, whose sceptre stretches over a range of empire that converts into sober reality, that hyperbole in which ancient kings used to find vent to their idle pride, that the sun never sets on their dominions,'-that individual, we say, must of necessity, though it may be unconsciously both on her part and ours, exercise no feeble nor limited influence over the great mass of her subjects.

Hence, the private character of a monarch is of vast moment even to Britain, with all the constitutional limitations and checks on the prerogatives of royalty. Much directly is in his power; and much more indirectly. It may be no idle curiosity, then, nor unbecoming irreverence for authority, nor wish to speak evil of dignities, that prompts a faithful subject's inquiry into the private character of a sovereign. Who was there that did not rejoice and give thanks to God for every new trait of piety and bold consistency in George III., —and who did not delight to gather up the precious traces of this which were ever and anon developing themselves? Nay, and all the more so, just in proportion as he loved his king and loved his country. Loyalty and patriotism alike were gladdened and strengthened by the manifestations of private worth which were from time to time making themselves known to the nation.

A sovereign's character is thus matter of no small importance to the empire. The moral and religious character of the court is something which concerns us all. And not least among these important items, is the religious training which the royal offspring are likely to receive. We ourselves, and still more our children, are concerned in the last of these. Hence the whole kingdom is interested in knowing the religious character and theological views of the man who, in the capacity of chaplain, presides over the royal household. A man of elevated piety, conscientiousness, and fidelity, might prove, in such circumstances, a blessing to the whole realm. Much lies in his power. If able, faithful, prayerful, and zealous for his God, he may do more for the real welfare of the nation, than the most consummate politician that ever guided the helm of the state.

It is rumoured that the highest personages in the realm are not