how to distinguish between them, cannot readily enter into the difficulties which enquirers meet with from this confusion of terms. The majority of men judge things to be what they are called, without taking the trouble to examine for themselves. By a casual and careless reading of the Scriptures, they associate the church of which they there read with the term in daily use. If they read, “Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it," they think it means the Church of England; and of the apostles "confirming the churches," that it it means Episcopal confirmation. Ought we to give any encouragement to this great evil? and yet are we not doing our utmost towards it when we give the title, not to all the people merely who assemble within the walls of a building, but to the walls themselves? The difference, it may be said, may be explained in the pulpit. But why create the necessity for such an explanation? first write on the walls, "Congregational Church," and then explain from the pulpit that it is not a church! How many, too, will read the deception without hearing the explanation? 4. It is inconsistent. It is peculiarly so with Nonconformists. It is inconsistent with their profession and their principles. What constitutes the true church of Christ, is the chief point of dispute between them and those from whom they dissent. The spirituality of the church or its limitation to regenerated individuals, in opposition to a mere secular, political, or denominational community, has been their chief distinction. In defence of this principle their fathers had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment, and resisted unto blood. A number of persons possessing one creed, bound together by canon law, and strictly conforming to the same rites and ceremonies, they maintained were, on that account, a Christian church. A nation could not be a church. The Church of Rome and the Church of England were wicked assumptions. The name, we have seem, was given to deceive; and in order to remove it as far as possible from its true meaning, was given to works of wood and stone. How comes it to pass that the same party which strenuously affirms that a national establishment is not a church, affirms that a material building is? A mere company of professing Christians cannot be a church, but a company of stones and rafters may be. Nay, the people within the walls are not on that account a church, but the walls themselves are. Is there no inconsistency here? We object to the use of the words regeneration, and priesthood, and sacrifice, and altar, in any other sense than the one to which they are almost entirely restricted in the New Testament; but neither of these is more inconsistent than our use of the word church. Where is the difference between the Episcopalian calling his baptism regeneration, and the Dissenter calling his place of worship a church? The former is not more remote from the true meaning than the latter. 5. It is needless. There are plenty of words in the English language and in ordinary use that would better answer the purpose. If the term church is needful, it can only be when it is needful to deceive, to conceal what our places of worship really are, and to give them the appearance of what they are not. 6. Might we not add, that such a use of the word church is profane? Think what the church of Christ really is, and how it is spoken of in the Divine word. "The church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood." "Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." "He is the head of the body, the church." It is an habitation of God through the Spirit; the flock of the great Shepherd of the sheep; a company of those who are called and sanctified in Christ Jesus; a spiritual house, a holy priesthood; a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; new Jerusalem; the tabernacle of God with men; the bride, the Lamb's wife. Is there not a sacredness, then, in the very name of that which is thus spoken of as next in honour and glory to Christ himself? Do we not, by giving that title to mere stones, profane the holy name by which we are called? How shockingly profane the use of the words Jesus and Christ appears to the uninitiated when applied to separate buildings in a university! The use of church in a similar connection is not wholly free from the same charge, if Christ and his church are one. We have stated our convictions thus freely and fully upon what appears to us to be one of the insidious and pernicious tendencies of Nonconformity in the present age, in the hope that it may lead some to discountenance a practice in which, for want of more reflection, they may hitherto bave seen no harm. Never was there a time in which the distinction between the church and the world ought to be more zealously guarded by us. It may be said by some, "What is there in a name?" We reply, that names and things are too closely allied to confound the one without confounding the other. The ancient terms of theology are the ancient land-marks, and no blessing certainly will come upon those who attempt to remove them. Reviews. Temperance Tales. By TAPLEY Gems of Song, with Music; a Hymn | Sketches in Water Colours: a Series of and Tune Book, for the Sunday School and for Use in Families: containing Two Hundred and Six Hymns, and One Hundred and Sixty-five Melodies. Compiled by GEORGE THOMAS CONGREVE. Elliot Stock. WHAT, in the name of Alpha, Beta, Gamina, Delta, and all the rest of them, is the meaning of I. O. G. T.? Does it AND all this for one shilling! It sur-mean, "I object to grog in toto?" Our prises us that it can be done for the money. Mr. Congreve has devoted himself to the sacred song of the Sabbath school with singular success. We anticipate that the unanimous verdict will be concerning this collection of song and music," there is none like it." admiration of tales and sensational stories is not very great at any time, and we cannot say that we bestow much of it upon this special specimen. Moreover, why did not Mr. Tapley keep to his tap? What need to have a fling at others? Let teetotalism be vindicated by all means, but what need is there to abuse the Hyper-Calvinists, among whom Wanderers brought Home: the Story of the Ragged Boys' Home. William there are some of the stanchest Macintosh, 24, Paternoster Row. THE interesting record of a work of faith among the ragged boys of Dublin. We wish the enterprise the richest blessing heaven can bestow. The Cottage on the Shore; or, Little ONE of the Tract Society's best little teetotallers living. We do not ap- The Mad War-Planet: and other Poems. | spirit. He modestly issues his hymns By W. HOWITT. Longmans. THE poem on war pleads vehemently, eloquently for peace. Would to God' its voice could be heard. It ought to call the Christian Church to do her duty as to war, and that duty plainly is to denounce it utterly and without reserve. The following lines deserve the serious consideration of all ministers : : "Ye ministers, so named of Christ the Blest, The Prince of Peace, the Lord of perfect Love, No longer preach his word with hollow faith, But in its grand concreteness speak it out: And tell your flocks that war and strife are cursed. There is no strife, there can be none in Christ! There is but love, and his are known by love;, And to destroy and ravage are not love. Oh! had ye stood, ye heralds of the Lord, Planted in every parish, every church, And meeting-house throughout the so-called lands Of Christendom, and spoken out the word And by school logic warped and stupefied; And perfect union of all mankind, Like Issachar, betwixt the puzzling burdens And the world now demandeth at your hands Your brothers' blood through all these generations. Rouse ye, then; stand to the eternal truth As the first Christians stood, and shout aloud And haste ye, for by multitudes already One Hundred and Forty Original WE greatly esteem our brother, who is as sound in doctrine as he is loving in for private use, and for this they are doctrine and gracious in spirit. No. best adapted. They are all clear in 37 is, we think, a fair specimen : "With thy counsel thou shalt guide Be that will whate'er it may; Keep me in the trying hour. Where I may for ever dwell, The Marrow of Dr. Thomas Goodwin's A MONSTROUS title! Take a pint of oxtail soup, and call it the essence of ten thousand oxen, and you will be as near the truth as is this title, when it acts as a label to about fifty small pages of scraps from the cyclopædian works of Goodwin. The extracts do not seem to us to have been made with any judgment; certainly not so carefully as to give in any sense or degree the marrow of such a deep and masterly writer. Fuel for our Fires; or, Coalpits, Colliers, and their Dangers. Keligious Tract Society. The Practical Moral Lesson Book, | death in the tea-pot: Cowper's "Cup embracing the Principles which, as which," etc.-everybody knows the derived from the Teaching of Scrip- quotation-turns out to be an awful ture and the Writings of the most cat-destroying fiend. We are sorry to eminent Authors, should regulate see such nonsense in so good a book. Human Conduct. Arranged and If the boys who are instructed out of adapted more especially for the use these capital class-books do not roar of young persons in schools and with laughter when they come to these families. Edited by the Rev. CHARLES 10,860 cats, they will turn out awful HOLE. In three books. Book First, stupids. Our earnest advice to the Parts I. & II.Longmans, Green, & Co. editor is to let our tea-tables alone, or WE have long wished to see such works if he must assail them, to do so without as these, and we very strongly commend the help of this American doctor and them to the notice of School Boards his 10,860 cats. Original Sin: an Essay on the Fall. By JAMES FRAME. Longmans. and masters of large schools. The first book treats of duties concerning the mind, and the second of duties concerning the body. Fathers would do well.WE scarcely need say that we widely to make their boys read the chapter differ from the views here expressed, concerning chastity, where in a very which are generally known as MorriWe see delicate, veiled manner a certain secret sonian, or Ultra-Arminian. nothing in the arguments of the writer sin and all other uncleanness is solemnly spoken of. The chapters on food, pure air, light, clothing, exercise, opium, alcohol, and mental excitement are admirable. We do not think so much of the warnings against tea and coffee, which might have been let alone. On tea there is a passage more calculated to alarm rabbits and cats than to influence anybody else. It is so amusing that we subjoin it : :-"Dr. Burdell, a distinguished physician of New York, informs us that he boiled down a pound of young Hyson tea from a quart to half a pint, and that three drops of it killed a rabbit three months old; and when boiled down to one gill, eight drops of it killed a cat of the same age in a few minutes. Think of that!" (We do think of it, and marvel that nine lives were so easily extinguished. We are half a mind to recommend Londoners to put a little on the top of their houses to silence midnight serenaders of the feline order.) "Most persons who drink tea use not less than a pound in three months, and yet a pound of Hyson tea contains poison enough to kill, according to the above experiment, more than 17,000 rabbits, or nearly 200 a-day! And if boiled down to a gill, it contains poison enough to kill 10,860 cats in the same space of time! Similar trials with black tea and coffee were made, and the results were nearly the same.' There, reader, tea-drinking reader, tremble for yourself and your rabbits, and your tabbies! There is either new or forcible, and could wish that he had spent the time wasted over this volume in compiling another of those delightful expositions upon the Psalms, which we have on former occasions commended to our readers. Unleavened Bread; or, Food for the New Life. By various Authors. Edited by C. R. H. Shaw & Co. SOME very thoughtful and spiritual Holy Spirit resting upon them, cannot papers, which, with the unction of the fail to bless the Christian reader. The Victory of the Vanquished. A Tale of the First Century. By the Author of "Chronicles of the Schönberg Cotta Family." Nelson & Sons. FROM its authorship and from its attractive title and appearance, we anticipated a great treat in the perusal of this book. We have been disappointed. The cloud which we hoped would refresh us with rain, has only bewildered us with fog. To our mind, the curious dislocated style of writing adopted here is ungraceful in the extreme. Delivered from the mannerism which veils and disfigures it, the story would be one of touching interest and beauty; and we cannot but feel sorry that with such a theme the author did not see fit to wield the same facile and fluent pen which gave us such masterpieces as "The Draytons and the Davenants," and" Kitty Trevelyan's Diary."-M. W. Cousin Mabel's Experiences. By Miss | Ashcliffe Hall. By EMILY SARAH HOLT. Religious Tract John F. Shaw & Co., 48, Paternoster E. J. WHATELY. Society. and MISS WHATELY is sure to have readers whenever she writes, and these sketches of religious life in England will interest, and we hope profit, all who peruse them. We wish that those who profess to be Christians would bring their religion to bear on every-day matters of homelife. This is the aim of the book, therefore we commend it.-B. The Measure of Faith. By PHILIP COLBORNE. Hodder & Stoughton. In this small collection of sermons are gems of the finest water. The one on Christian Heroism is of the first order. Long may Norwich be blest with the ministration of the author, and the cause of truth be served by his lip and pen.-B. Biblical Treasury. Vol. I., New Series. Sunday School Union, Old Bailey. ONE of the most interesting and useful of the serials published by the Sunday School Union. We need say no more. It has already a large circulation, and we predict for it a still larger. Row. A HEALTHY, vigorous tone pervades the book, and there is much of life in the actions and events. The story is a description of incidents likely to have transpired in the last century, and the authoress's hand has not lost its cunning in describing them.-B. Ezekiel and other Poems. By B. M. T. Nelson & Sons. Α WE think we can discover the genuine ring of true poetry in this little book. If to be moved almost to tears while reading, and to wish it were longer when finished, is any test of the power of a poem, then there are some in this work which will come up to a high standard of excellence. deep pathos and a plaintive beauty are manifest in many of the pieces, which have greatly delighted us. Perhaps the minor key is too predominant, but every songster must trill her own lay in the notes God has fitted to her voice. It will amply repay a perusal.-B. Memoranda. On the last day of the Annual Conference we were laid prostrate by an attack of our very painful malady. It will, we fear, be our cross till death. We have been comparatively free from it ever since Christmas, 1869; but on this occasion it came upon us as an armed man, and great has been our bodily anguish beneath its strokes. For this reason, our personal work being suspended, our notes are few this month. How grateful are we that our dear brothers and others are able to conduct affairs so well in our absence. The Lord's name be praised. We had a noble Conference-good throughout. We intend printing three of the papers then read. They were of extraordinary excellence. At our dear friend Mr. Phillips's supper £1,500 was subscribed to the College. Truly, the Lord has not left us. Our beloved friend, Mr. T—, on the first day of our illness, sent £250 for our work, that our mind might be at rest. Herein is love. God bless such donors. Friends will please observe that the amounts sent in for the Orphanage have been very small of late. God will supply the orphans' need, but let not his people forget. On Monday evening, April 17th, the Annual Meeting of the Colportage Association was held in the Tabernacle. The Colporteurs from Harold wood and Sheppey gave an account of their work; and Mr. J. A. Spurgeon, and Mr. R. Shindler, of Eythorne, made some excellent remarks on the value of the agency. The report, which contained most interesting extracts from the letters of the colporteurs, we hope to be able to reprint in our next number. God bas abundantly blessed the labours of our colporteurs in the ten districts already established; and we long to be enabled, by increased subscriptions, greatly to extend our efforts in this direction. Baptisms at Metropolitan Tabernacle by Mr. J. A. Spurgeon:-March 20th, fourteen; March 23rd, twelve. |