Our first impression on reading the passage was that of surprise, our second that of incredulity. We taxed our memory to the utmost, but could recall no such sentence as is here quoted, and our most diligent examination of the past numbers of our Journal was equally unproductive. We therefore addressed a note to the Editor of the Christian Observer,' requesting to be informed where the passage quoted from the Eclectic might be found, and expressing our conviction that if adduced with verbal correctness, the context would be found greatly to modify the sentiment expressed. The result has fully justified our conviction, as appears by the following editorial note inserted in the Observer' for January.

'We have received the following from the Editor of the Eclectic Review: "Sir, 20th December, 1840.

In the Christian Observer for this month, page 728, an extract from 'The Electic,' entitled by you 'An oft-quoted passage,' is made, which I have been unable to trace out. Will you therefore oblige me by informing me where the passage may be found. I have no recollection of it whatever, and am persuaded that if quoted correctly, its meaning must be greatly modified by the context. Apologizing for the trouble thus given you, I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,

THE EDITOR OF THE ECLECTIC.'

34, Paternoster Row. 'We of course comply with this just and reasonable request. The passage referred to will be found in the volume for 1832, p. 144. We did not give it as new, but as an oft-quoted passage.' It occurs in a long and elaborate paper, written in so much more kind and candid a spirit than that which too many Dissenters (and some of the writers in the Eclectic among them) have evinced in later years towards the Church of England, that we gladly recur to it. The immediate context contains a statement to the effect that some Dissenters, by their intercourse with pious Churchmen in the Bible Society, had found (as we should express it) their prejudices diminish; so that in this way the Anglican Church has been benefited by the alliance. But the writer intimates that this abatement of virulence was not pleasing to all Dissenters; for that some considered that pure attachment to dissenting principles requires to be kept up in the minds of a certain class by a keen hatred, and now and then a little round abuse, of the Church.' The writer clearly intimates his own opinion that such barbarous warfare was not lawful; he would doubtless have wished that all men should become Dissenters by sound scriptural reason, without invective; but his admission that he differed from some of his brethren in this matter was for this very reason the more oracular.' —Ib. for January, p. 62.

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Upon this passage we remark, that the responsibility of the sentence în question does not rest with the present editor of the Eclectic,' it having appeared nearly five years before the commencement of the new series. He believes the statement to be founded in error, and to be calumnious towards those whose spirit it was intended to describe. But further, and to this point we invite special attention, it now appears that the paper from which this sentence is quoted is written in so much more kind and candid a spirit' than is common to Dissenters that the Editor of the Christian Observer' gladly recurs to it.' This is sufficiently satisfactory so far as the candor of our Journal is concerned, but whether it was equally honorable to the candor of our

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contemporary to detach such a sentence from its connexion in order to involve nineteen twentieths of the lay members, and many of the ministers' of the dissenting body in a charge of most unchristian and disreputable conduct, we leave it with the Observer' to determine. We have already expressed our belief that the statement is inaccurate, * and though it may consist with the morality of party tactics to avail itself, as the 'Observer' has here done, of the divisions existing amongst opponents, we deem such a proceeding to be utterly incompatible with the higher code of morals by which our religious periodicals should be regulated.

Here we might close our remarks, had not our contemporary, feeling apparently that he had done the Eclectic' injustice in this matter, sought to strengthen his case by a reference to a recent article in our Journal on the Book of Common Prayer. We were aware, at the time we gave insertion to that Article, that it would offend the pre-possessions of many members of the Established Church; but justice to our own convictions of what was due to the religious interests of our countrymen did not permit us to hesitate as to the course we should pursue. As, however, our representation of the character of the Prayer Book has subjected us to misapprehension, we must crave permission to add a word or two in explanation. In affirming the Prayer Book to be the most dangerous and injurious book which the English language contains,' we had no reference to the Morning and Evening Service of the Church, nor did we design to affirm, in the sense intended by the Observer,' that it was 'worse therefore than the works of Tom Paine and the tracts of the Socialists.' These publications have been the source of unmixed evil-not so the Prayer Book. We freely admit, and rejoice to do so-yea in the very Article itself we have done it that thousands of devout men and women do every week, with a pure heart and humble voice, accompany the minister to the throne of the heavenly grace, using the prescribed language of prayer and praise.' But whilst the piety of many episcopalians has been nourished by some of the devotional forms of their church, we have a strong conviction that the unscriptural errors which, with fatal consistency run through the occasional offices prescribed in the Prayer Book, have proved, and are still proving to the great mass of our population, the source of spiritual delusion and eternal death. The same authority which teaches the child that in baptism he was made a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven,' proclaims to all bystanders at his grave-however irreligious or even profligate may have been his life-that it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of the deceased, and that his body is therefore committed to the dust in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ.' The sanction of the church-which, be it remembered, is in the judgment of thousands the sanction of religion-is thus daily given, in terms too explicit to be misunderstood, to an open and palpable lie,- -a lie which sets at defiance the plainest statements of the Word of God, and tends beyond all other delusions to pervert the faith and ruin the souls of its members. Many pious episcopalians, and not few of the clergy, have groaned

under the conviction of the truth we allege; and is it then too much to apply the terms which we have employed-strong as we admit those terms to be to the book in which such soul-deluding errors are clothed with all the weight of spiritual authority? The infidel publications, referred to by the Observer,' have operated only within a narrow circle and through a very limited period of time, whilst the delusion thus sanctioned by the Prayer Book has descended through successive generations, and moulded to practical ungodliness the great mass of our countrymen. The influence of the former has been very circumscribed, that of the latter almost universal; the one has been productive, on a small scale, of unmixed evil, the other of an aggravated and far wider form of irreligion, the more fatal from its having been mistaken for the truth of God. If the light that is in thee be darkness,' said our Saviour, how great is that darkness.'

To

We trust that we have said enough to place our meaning beyond misconception, as well as to relieve ourselves from the charge of sectarian bitterness, which has been so liberally preferred against us. the pious members of the Established Church-and more particularly to such episcopalians as are advocates of the voluntary principle-we say with all sincerity that it is no part of our mission, and is utterly foreign from our hearts to wound unnecessarily their feelings. If we have written strongly, it has been because we believe-whether correctly or not-that the case involved the welfare of souls and the honor of our common faith. Let them therefore candidly place themselves in our position, and then say whether, with the convictions we have avowed, we could honestly have done other than we have done. We might easily adduce from the writings of pious churchmen statements substantially similar to our own; but must content ourselves with referring to those which were quoted in the article to which the 'Observer' objects.

MY DEAR SIR,

A Letter to the Editor.

Homerton, Jan. 11, 1841.

It is with strong reluctance that I take upon myself thus to address you but I trust that you and all candid persons will not disapprove of my so doing. I act solely upon my own responsibility, without any instruction or request from any person whatever.

The very able and interesting article in your last number, upon The London University and the Colleges connected with it, is introduced by an enumeration of nine printed documents, as the basis of the discussion. Among those are the Reports of three Dissenting Colleges, Highbury, Stepney, and Spring Hill; but that of the oldest of existing institutions of this kind among Protestant Dissenters, Homerton, is not mentioned.

I have no doubt but that this omission has been the result of inad

vertence; or it may be that the Homerton Report, printed in September, may not have fallen into your hands. Moreover I fear that the authorities of our academy have been too backward in giving publicity to their own proceedings. For many years, they have systematically refrained from inserting narratives of the Annual Examinations in periodical works; for the reason that a meagre recital would be unsatisfactory, and that full details might wear a semblance of ostentation. This reserve has perhaps been carried too far, and thus may have produced an impression upon the public, that we are supine and sullen or that we are indifferent to the opinion of our Christian friends, or that we need not their aid in the way of pecuniary subscriptions. Any one of these surmises would be far from the truth.

By the infinite mercy of the Most High, the person who now addresses you has been brought into the forty-first year of sustaining office as a Tutor in this seminary. The last year, God has blessed me with a colleague, the Rev. Henry Lea Berry, M.A., whose Christian excellence, his attainments, and his devotedness to his great work, fill me with gratitude and encouragement. A man of decided piety and firm dissenting principles, Robert Wallace, Esq. one of the Professors in the College of Engineers at Putney, attends at stated seasons to instruct our students in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. By the Divine blessing upon the care and liberality of our Committee, we are thus richly provided with the means of improvement.

Our term of study is six years; which however may be reduced to five, or even a shorter period, by the result of previous advantages and superior diligence: but our new circumstances of connexion with the London University will probably render such reductions of the time much less frequent than they have hitherto been. Three of our young brethren have lately concluded their courses with honor, and have been called to the pastoral office in important stations and with encouraging prospects. The present number of students is sixteen. I am, my dear Sir,

Yours most respectfully,

J. PYE SMITH.

Brief Notices.

Historic Illustrations of the Bible, principally after the Old Masters. Divisions I, and II. London: Fisher.

One of the best and most beautiful of the numerous works of art which have been produced by the Messrs. Fisher. Each division con. tains twelve highly finished engravings from paintings executed by the most distinguished masters of ancient and modern times, and the whole when completed will form an elegant and not uninstructive companion to the sacred volume. In these illustrations corporeal expression of spiritual beings is carefully avoided, as well as everything that appeared to approach the great Author of our being with familiarity. În

order to accomplish this desirable object the whole range of the scriptural works of the ancient masters has now been carefully examined, and a selection made for this uniform continuous biblical series, comprehending illustrations of nearly every book in the holy Bible free from any questionable representation, and elucidating the historical events of the Old Testament, the moral and miraculous of the New, and calculated to become a pure and powerful auxiliary in communicating an enduring knowledge and recollection of the Scriptures.'

The work may be had in monthly parts, containing three engravings each, price two shillings, or in divisions consisting of twelve plates, bound in cloth, price nine shillings.

Life of the late George Vason, of Nottingham, one of the Troop of Missionaries first sent to the South Sea Islands by the London Missionary Society in the Ship Duff. Captain Wilson, 1796. With a Preliminary Essay on the South Sea Islands. By the Rev. James Orange, Author of the History of the Town and People of Nottingham.' London: Snow. 1840.

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It is almost impossible to read this affecting narrative without receiving the most important instructions and solemn warning. The character of George Vason is exhibited as a beacon, on which may be seen, as in letters of flame, 'Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.'

The Captivity of the Jews, and their Return from Babylon. London: Religious Tract Society. 1840.

It is an admirable digest of the events recorded in the inspired volume, illustrated by facts which ancient history supplies. It contains much valuable information which can be found only in works inaccessible to the mass of religious readers. It is so cheap that the poor may obtain it, and so well compiled that the rich will not despise it.

Literary Entelligence.

In the Press.

Priscilla the Helper. A Memoir of Mrs. Rowlett, late of Coventry. By John Grigg Hewlett, Minister of Wall Street Chapel, Coventry.

Just Published.

Oliver Cromwell; an Historical Romance. Edited by the author of Brambletye House. 3 vols.

Ward's Library of Standard Divinity. Memoir of Dr. E. Payson. By Rev. Asa Cummings.

The Works of Josephus. Part 8.

Canadian Scenery Illustrated. Part 9.