suaded, make your work perfect, and moreover, would hand your name down to posterity, not only as the best of patriots and benefactors, but also as a good and faithful Christian.

And now, Sir, before bidding you farewell, we would admit our consciousness that we are obnoxious to the charge of presumption, in venturing thus to call in question the wisdom and the integrity of those who have the rule Permit us to plead in reply, that we believe the principles which we have enunciated to be great, fundamental, and salutary TRUTHS; and that the proper TIME has arrived for their promulgation.

over us.

We look up to the Great Disposer of all events, and pray that you, Sir, may have grace from above to "eschew evil and do good, to seek peace and ensue it," so that the great realities of the Christian Dispensation may be daily more and more magnified in your estimation, and made more and more available in the land; and so we subscribe ourselves

Your most obedient, humble Servants.

MAMMO-MANIA.

SECTION I.

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.

"THERE will come a time," said the venerable Hooker, "when three words of charity and meekness shall do more on the earth than thousands of folio volumes." We trust it is in this spirit that we present the following pages to public attention, although we have felt it to be our duty to speak boldly and decisively upon a subject, beyond all others, the most momentous. It is conference, not controversy, that we solicit with the reader. And this conference we propose should be based on Christian principles exclusively. It does not, however, follow that none but true believers can enter into the merits of the discussion. But, on the contrary, we solicit the attention of every man of good, sound, common sense, as fully competent to the inquiry; assuming only for the occasion that Christianity is true, and that, being true, it must be pre-eminent and paramount in all that it predicates, unfolds, prescribes, or demands.

B

Some years ago the Lord Bishop of London published a letter addressed to the inhabitants of London and Westminster, in which he maintained that the wealth of the world is bestowed as a favour from Almighty God, as a boon from Heaven to those who, like himself, possess it in great abundance. The following are the Bishop's own words :

"It is not principally to the lower orders of society that the following observations are addressed; it is rather to those who, by a proper use of the worldly advantages which God has given them,” &c.—(Letter, p. 5.)

"To the observations which follow I request the particular attention of those amongst you who move in the higher walks of life; and who, in proportion to your elevation above the bulk of the community, are under a more fearful responsibility for the use of your worldly advantages to HIM who has intrusted them to your management.”—(Letter, p. 18.)

Now this is plain language, easily understood; it is, moreover, spontaneously sent to us; it comes to us as the voice of high authority; and it is put forth ostensibly "in the cause of God and his Gospel."

The proposition of the Lord Bishop we presumed publicly to controvert* immediately after its promulga

*This was done in a pamphlet with the following title:-'Riches. Who is the Dispenser of Riches? A question of vital Christianity,

tion. We asserted our conviction that the sentiment of the learned and dignified prelate is wholly at variance with Gospel truth; that is, contrary to the plainest testimony of Jesus of Nazareth,—of Him who seems to say in all his dicta, precepts, and parables, that a being at enmity with God—that a spirit hostile to man—that an agent of evil-has, by a mysterious dispensation of Providence, been allowed to make such a distribution of the riches of the world as would suit his malignant and destructive projects. And we attempted to prove, by arguments derived from the history, the precepts, the parables, and the positive declarations of our Lord, not only that riches are the very res infecta of our poor polluted systems-the bane to Christianity-the lure of Satan; but that the opinions—the false opinions-which obtain upon this subject, present the most formidable obstacle against the advancement of that DISPENSATION, which is in the course of time (ere long, perhaps) to supersede every dispensation devised by the wisdom of men; we mean the DISPENSATION OF REDEMPTION prepared by the Son of God.

That the words of the Lord Bishop of London, above quoted, do admit of an acceptation, or reading, strictly true in the abstract, is most freely admitted. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof;" all creation is the work of his hands; he reigneth supreme over all things; "the gold is mine, and the silver is mine,

respectfully submitted to the Lord Bishop of London, suggested by his Lordship's recent letter to the inhabitants of London and Westminster. By Christianus.' London, Richardson, 1830.

saith the Lord of Hosts;" "He lifteth up one, and putteth down another;" "HE maketh rich, and He maketh poor;" "riches, and wealth, and honour, are given" by HIM.

Does

To this abstract proposition none but an atheist would demur; to this fundamental, yet inscrutable truth, even every deist is ready to subscribe. But is this the sense in which the Lord Bishop employs these words? not this authorized and distinguished teacher intend to inculcate that the distribution of wealth, which now obtains in the world, is the Lord's doing?—that every rich man may look upon his worldly wealth as a Heavensent gift?

The question, then, on which we have joined issue with the Bishop, is all-absorbing and most momentous. There is happily, however, no room here for quibbling upon words, or for dissembling about facts. Both parties are agreed in all the main particulars of the case. Thus, that there is an Almighty Being, the creator and preserver of this globe and all which it inhabits, the author and giver of all good, is our first position; and that there is another being, of an opposite character, who is the author and fomentor of all evil; this is the second of the primary positions in which both parties are agreed, Then, again, that our world abounds with wealth, and that this wealth is so divided that some are rich and some are poor; this proposition is assented to by all, and constitutes the premises whereon the disputed hypothesis takes its stand. The question simply is-which