At the same time it is essential that justice should be done to the grand principles which have been upheld by the Church of England, and by none more heartily and earnestly than by the Evangelical members of it. It is right that those who are separated from us should know the reasons why Evangelical men cling with love and affection to the Church of their fathers, and find in its ordinances unspeakable comfort and profit to their souls. Standing, as the Christian Observer ever has done, in a position of perfect freedom, and seeking not gain, but the dissemination of the truth, we feel we occupy a vantage-ground which we are loath to relinquish, and in which we think we ought to be maintained by those to whom the Church of England, as "a witness and a keeper of Holy Writ,” may be dear. It will be, therefore, the aim and object of those to whom the management of the periodical is confided, if spared through the course of the coming year, not to swerve from the old paths so warily trodden by their predecessors, and with so much blessing and advantage to the Church, and we would fain hope also to the best interests of our common Christianity. We have to return hearty thanks to many friends and to valued correspondents for the continued support which they have afforded us; and although not without anxious thoughts as to the responsibility devolving upon us, yet in the humble confidence that “the Lord is on our side,” and that we are seeking to be on His, we would gird ourselves up again to the task which lies before us, pleading with those who have been with us in times past to go forth with us once more to the battle "against the mighty." CONTENTS. APRIL. Page 265 2. The Vatican Council............ 3. Leathes' Boyle Lectures for 1869 .......................... 35 gelical Clergymen............ 5. The Parochial Council. No. II. 6. Disestablishment or Compre- 2. The Purchas Judgment ...... 3. The Gown or the Surplice ... 291 4. The Athanasian Creed ......... 301 5. Scenes from Bible Lands ...... 308 6. Poetry :-Isaiah lv. 1-3 ...... 316 1. The Hawaiian Jubilee ......... 321 2. Memorials of Bishop Hampden 331 3. Rome, Ancient and Modern... 340 4. St. Paul and Protestantism ... 353 5. The Revolt of the Protestants of the Cevennes ............... 6. The Prophecies of Balaam ... 375 7. Canon Robertson on the Pur- FEBRUARY rature of the Israelites...... manist............. Navy in connection with the Chaplain's Work ...... • 111 122 5. Dr. Tregelles' Greek Testa- 6. A Distant World ............. 146 1. Principles of Action, not Suc- cess, our Chief Concern ... 401 2. Froude on Calvinism............ 407 3. Christian Inscriptions in An- cient Gaul ...................., 4. The Text of the Old Testament Providentially Preserved ... 428 5. Lanfrey's History of Napoleon 443 6. Sir George Stephen's Life of 9. “ The Scattered Nation" ....... 2. Keil's Introduction to the Old 3. “The Gates Ajar”........... 192 4. Burton's History of Scotland 207 5. Savile's “Truth of the Bible" 227 6. Rognon's Sermons ..... .. 233 1. On the Influences of the Holy tions ......... Belief ........................... 489 3. The Speaker's Commentary... 498 4. On the Use and Abuse of Music in Public Worship ......... 521 Church of Ireland............ 533 6. Boultbee's Introduction to the England ......................... 545 7. Ignatius Loyola and the Early 1. The Present Adoption and the Children of God ............ 721 2. On the Office of the Goël, or 3. On the Formation of Parochial tion of Personal Piety ...... 732 4. Liturgical Exercises. — May their Children at Baptism? 739 5. Augustine's “ City of God”... 745 Shaftesbury .................. 7. Shall our Pulpits be Re-opened to Non-Episcopal Preachers? 781 2. Reasons for Returning to the 3. The Speaker's Commentary... 4. Lectures of the Christian Évi. 5. On the Use and Abuse of Music 6. The Ecclesiastical Polity of the 7. The Bible Student............... Liturgicæ ..................... 1. Scripture Readings.-Ps. xxiii. 801 2. The Excellence of the Bible: a Parochial Address ......... 808 3. The Parochial Council ......... 816 4. Shall our Pulpits be Re-opened to Non-Episcopal Preachers? 828 5. Sundays in Oxford ............ 6. An Old Magazine ............... 842 7. The Speaker's Commentary ... 853 8. Memoirs of Rev. John Wesley Etheridge ..................... 864 9. Correspondence :-Rev. E. B. Elliott on Heb. xiii. 10...... 868 1. The Policy of Christ towards His Day ........................ 641 2. The Moabite Stone ............ 652 3. Ten Years North of the Orange River ............................ 666 4. Bishop Butler Reviewed in the 5. Is not the Parochial System in Jeopardy? ...................... 693 viving in East Africa ...... 710 7. Notices of Books ............... 716 1. Martha, Mary, and their Bro- ther .............................. 881 2. Archdeacon Pratt on the Dar- winian Hypothesis ......... 888 3. Taine on Intelligence ......... 891 4. The Speaker's Commentary ... 903 5. Marco Polo ........................ 921 lotte Elliott .................. 938 THE NEW YEAR. It is very difficult to say anything new upon the subject of the New Year. Happily, however, it is not absolutely neces. sary for us to do so in writing such a paper as this. There is a value about old truth which may well excuse recurrence to it. We aim at no ignoble mark when we endeavour to deepen impressions which, if left to themselves, might be only too apt to fade away. And perhaps we may hope to benefit ourselves and others, by calling to remembrance once more the lessons so often suggested to so many minds by the close of one year and the beginning of another. We may be sure that a certain amount of sad and serious thoughts will cluster round this time. A whole twelvemonth can hardly have gone without leaving behind it changes to remind us, somewhat painfully, that the fashion of this world passeth away, and that we have here no continuing city. Friends, it may be, have been taken from our side. The prosperity of others has begun to wane. Here dark clouds are gathering round some beloved household; life is threatened, for the months as they sped away have sown the seeds of in. corable disease; and there a blight has come over the fair promise of the spiritual harvest; and the disciple, long prayed for, long and anxiously watched over, has turned away from the Divine Master, and refuses to walk any more with Him. Added to this, the thoughtful Christian cannot but be saddened, because he cannot but be dissatisfied with himself, when he looks back over the long period which has just come to a close. What has he to show that is at all commensurate with the opportunities he has enjoyed ? He is not in the spiritual position which he feels he ought to occupy, and might have occupied, Vol. 70.--No. 397. |