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the redemption is no grace, then to confer that same moral free agency through nature is no benevolence. But we shall have no hesitation in assuming that every Christian thinker will maintain that the natural bestowment of moral free agency is a benevolence in the Creator. And those same thinkers must maintain that the restoration of that moral free agency through the redemption is a grace.

Through the whole Christian system the graciousness of God's gifts is to be estimated, not by the result procured through the abuse of them on the part of the agent, but by the benevolence of the divine purpose in conferring the gift. "If I had not come," said the Saviour, "they had not had sin." (John xv, 22.) Surely it must be an infidel reasoner who infers that the coming of Jesus was therefore the greatest of curses. The Gospel is pronounced to be "a savor of death unto death." All the gifts and graces that God bestows are liable, by man's free perversion, to be transformed into curses. The reasoner who estimates the character of those graces and gifts, not by God's intention, but by man's perversion, will destroy all grace in redemption and all benevolence in creation. It follows, therefore, that the restoration of a moral free agency, being estimated by the gracious designs of God, is a most gracious bestowment resulting from the atonement.

Third Objection. If God's benevolence in allowing the sufferings of creation cannot be defended without adducing the remedy through redemption, then redemption must be a debt and not a grace, since God is obligated to furnish the redemption as a compensation for the miseries of creation.

Thus this writer says:

"The state of all mankind," says Mr. Wesley, "did so far depend on Adam, that by his fall they all fall into sorrow, and pain, and death spiritual and temporal. And all this is no ways inconsistent with either the justice or goodness of God." This is sound Calvinism; but he immediately adds a proviso: All this is perfectly consistent "with the justice and goodness of God:" "PROVIDED, all may recover through the second Adam whatever they lost through the first." But if this be so, then it is the coming of the second Adam, "and the grace of the Gospel," which alone vindicates "the justice and goodness of God" in the fall of Adam's posterity "into sorrow, and pain, and death." But as God is supremely just and good, there could, of course, have been no such

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fall if there had been no "second Adam "—and no grace of the Gospel." Thus the offspring of Adam are indebted to pure grace for this dreadful "fall into sorrow, pain, and death.”—P. 46.

To all this we reply: Of an entire system a single part may be, as viewed in different aspects, both a justice and a grace. It may be a justice because, if the other parts of the gracious system are brought into existence, that part too must exist in order to the completeness of the system. Unless that part be supplied the system is defective, perhaps graceless, and even cruel. But supply the part, and not only is the whole system gracious, but the part itself is pre-eminently gracious. The entire process of restoring Lazarus to life and to the enjoyment of his friends was a miracle of mercy. Christ was not bound to perform it. But to have granted him conscious life without the power of locomotion, fastening him forever, consciously alive, in the tomb, would have been the height of cruelty. Was the additional grant of locomotion, therefore, a debt? As a completion of the miracle of mercy, we answer, It was. The Saviour could not benevolently perform a part without performing the whole. But, performing the whole, not only was the whole process, but every part of the whole process, benevolence and grace.

So in the system of God, were he to bring the race into existence under the law of natural descent from a depraved parent, and under the impending curse of the divine law, he would be obligated by his own righteousness to furnish the redemptive part. The system, as a righteous system, would be incomplete, graceless, and cruel, without the complement of the atonement. Furnish that part, and not only is the whole gracious, but that particular part is pre-eminently gracious! God was not obligated to create; and his act of creation was a manifestation of his benevolence as well as of his power. Having created, it is due to his own character that his works should unfold that benevolence. Wherever he revealed himself as terrible and just, that revelation has some counterpart of manifested goodness. This may be done either by rich displays in other parts of nature, explaining his dealings of severity, or in some new remedial system overlaying nature with an extraordinary display of grace. God has done it by the redemptive remedy. But the man who argues that, inasmuch

as that remedy is the key to God's whole work, without which it would not be a merciful system, therefore it is no grace or goodness at all, will find himself involved in consequences which will exclude him from Christian theology and place him in the ranks of atheism.

If, argues this writer, Wesley is obliged to adduce the redemption to justify God in the miseries of the world, he confesses that redemption is a debt and no grace; and it follows that, but for that redemption, these miseries would not exist, and so to redemption we are indebted for all our woe. If, argues the atheist, the theist justifies the miseries in the world by the natural surplus of happiness in the world, then that happiness is a debt and no benevolence, and to it we are indebted for all these miseries. Thus the same reasoning that abolishes grace from redemption abolishes benevolence from nature. The reply is the same in both cases. God was not obliged to bring the system into existence; but having brought it forth, it justifies the ways of his severity and the dark points of his providence, to show that there is a benevolence in nature, a grace in redemption. God could not appear just without these last elements, but the elements that show him just are truly benevolence and grace. Should God create this system without redemption, it would be a dark and gloomy system; give us the redemption, and not only is the whole system gracious, but the redemptive part is eminently gracious.

ART. VIII.-FOREIGN RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

GREAT BRITAIN.

THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES. The . recovery by the English convocations of full legislative power is an event of much greater importance than the religious press in general attributes to it. The Church of England is in a state of rapid transition. From year to year, and from session to session, she more ceases to be the enslaved subject of the Crown of England, and her life and activity begin to revolve round the center of her own doctrines, usages, and tradi

tions; she less prides herself as "the Church of England;" leaves her isolation from the rest of the Christian world, and with cheering hope and sanguine expectation looks forward to the moment when she will be connected by strong ties of confederacy with a number of similarly constituted Churches all over the earth. The rapid increase of bishoprics in the colonies, which, among themselves, forms hierarchical organizations almost independent of the Crown and of the Church of England; the sending out of missionary bishops into countries out

Church, does not conceal his sympathy with the principles of the Essays.

side of the British territory, and the im- | work on the History of the Eastern portant movements of the Greek Church. which cannot possibly escape much longer a dissolution into a number of independent Episcopalian bodies, are well calculated to foster the hopes of the English Churchman. During the past three months the Convocation of Canterbury, for the first time, completed the synodical action on the change of one of the canons, while that of York raised its voice for the increase of bishoprics in England, and for the abolition of the pew system. It is felt on all sides that the Convocations are, almost imperceptibly, reassuming in the minds of the people the authority of the highest ecciesiastical tribunal, and it was in conformity with this transformation of national opinion that Lord Ebury declined this year to bring in a motion for the revision of the Book of Common Prayer. He said he would wait for the action of Convocation on the subject, but in case Convocation should not take in hand the subject he would renew his motion for "revision," which had the sympathy of one English bishop and the two Irish archbishops.

The Lower House of the Convocation of Canterbury took an important and decided step with regard to the "Essays and Reviews." Archdeacon Denison, as chairman of the committee appointed the previous session, moved a series of resolutions condemnatory of the volume, and as constituting sufficient grounds for proceeding to a synodical judgment upon it.

These resolutions were carried by a very large majority, and, together with the report of the committee, communicated to the Upper House. Contrary to general expectation, the bishops did not resolve to proceed at once to synodical judgment, but, in consideration that a suit had already been commenced by one of the bishops against one of the essayists, by a unanimous vote declared it expedient to adjourn the further consideration of the subject, pending the course of the suit. In the meanwhile the Essays" controversy continues to overflood the book-market with controversial books, large and small, learned and popular, profound and trashy. Every number of the Publishers' Circular still teems with new announcements. The vast majority of them strongly condemn the book, which finds, however, some influential defenders, as, for example, Professor Stanley, who, in his new

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Two important decisions have been made during the past three months in questions concerning the relation between Church and State. In Parliament a very keen contest took place on the subject of Church rates. The Conservative party put forth its full strength to defeat the third reading of the Church Rate Abolition bill, and had the gratification-unexpected to themselves-to see the vote equally divided and the motion lost by the casting vote of the Speaker. The friends of religious liberty have been disagreeably surprised by this result, but by no means discouraged; the agitation has been commenced anew, and will not cease until the principle of voluntaryism will have triumphed. In Scotland the celebrated Cardross case has been decided in the Court of Session against the claims of the Free Church. It will be remembered that the latter refused to submit the forms of its procedure, by which the plaintiff maintained to be impaired in his civil rights, to the supervision of the civil courts. The judgment of the court was unanimous. The case will be appealed to the House of Lords. As the question involves the possession of a disciplinary power in all unestablished bodies, the final decision is awaited with deep and general interest.

A very remarkable letter has been written by a well-known deist of England, F. W. Newman, to a Bengali periodical of Calcutta, which is the organ of an association of Indian deists. The latter appear to be desirous to establish a closer union with the deists of Christian countries, and have sent to Mr. Newman their periodical, together with several deistical tracts published by them.

Mr. Newman's letter gives an account of the present condition and the prospects of the deists in England, which expresses but little hopes for the rise of a Theistic Church.

The Baptists of England are at present divided into three distinct bodies: the Particular Baptists, who are Calvinists; the General Baptists, who are Unitarians; and the New Connection of General Baptists, who are Evangelical Arminians. The latter, at their late annual meeting, adopted a resolution in favor of a closer union with the Particular Baptists.

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.-The religious statistics published in the Irish census disappoint the expectations of those who had hoped to find the Protestant population almost as large as the Roman Catholic. This hope had been, of late, generally indulged in by the Protestant Press of Great Britain, although it was irreconcilable with the official marriage and educational statistics of the country, which fully agree with the ecclesiastical statistics, as now ascertained.

This coincidence leaves no doubt as to the correctness of the official account, at least as far as the number of Roman Catholics is concerned. The following are the most important points of the census: Roman Catholics, 4,490,583; members of the Established Church, 678,661; Presbyterians, 598,992; Methodists, 44,532; all other persuasions, 8,414; Jews, 322. The total number of Irish Protestants is 1,273,960, giving the Roman Catholics a majority of 3,216,623, or about 3 Roman Catholics to one Protestant. Each of the four provinces shows a Roman Catholic majority, and of the thirty-two counties in Ireland only four, Antrim, Down, Armagh, and Londonderry, (all in the province of Ulster,) show a Protestant preponderance. The county of Down contains the largest number of Presbyterians, 136,013; county Antrim ranks next with 133,440; county Londonderry, 66,014; Armagh has 40,000, Tyrone 46,000, and Donegal 26,000, while in Fermanagh it appears there are only 1,857 Presbyterians. The county of Down also contains the largest number of Episcopalians, 60,516; next in order follow Armagh, Antrim, Tyrone, and Fermanagh, while the smallest number in any county is 3,371 in Clare. Cork is the premier Roman Catholic county in Ireland, there being 424,589 Roman Catholics, the smallest number of that body in any county being in Carlow, 50,613. Since 1834 the population of Ireland is diminished by 2,190,217; the Roman Catholic population by 1,945,477, the Church of England population (including the Methodists) by 129,967, the Presbyterians by 114,666. By comparing the statistics of 1834 with those of 1861, it will be seen that as to the total population a change has taken place in favor of Protestantism, for while formerly there were about six Roman Catholics to one Protestant, there are now only three and a half. On the other hand, the pouring of Roman Catholic

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masses into the former Protestant province of Ulster has increased the number of predominantly Roman Catholic counties, and will be a political advantage to the Roman Catholics, in proportion as the general suffrage is extended.

GERMANY.

THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES.-The movement of the German State Churches toward ecclesiastical self-government is progressing with increasing rapidity. The meeting of delegates of the several German Church governments, which this year met again at Eisenach, has by a unanimous vote passed an important resolution in favor of it. Though not yet declaring for an entire separation be tween Church and State, they strongly condemned the system of territorialism, which claims for the secular government an absolute right to govern the Church, and insisted on having the administration of ecclesiastical affairs confided to an ecclesiastical board, which should be entirely independent of the State Government, and in direct communication with the people. In most German States this principle has already been established, and the influence of this conference of the German Churches is probably sufficient to cause its adoption by all the other States. The Church of Baden has already gone farther, and adopted a new constitution which greatly diminishes the ecclesiastical right of the Grand Duke in appointing Church officers, and concentrates almost the entire government of the Church in the hands of an elective General Synod, one half of whose members are ministers and one half laymen. In one of the Prussian provinces, which were hitherto without a regular system of Church synods, diocesan synods have been everywhere organized. In the Prussian Parliament a majority of the Protestant deputies was in favor of asking the ministry to carry through the independence of the Church, as promised in the constitution; and among those who voted against the motion, some, as the distinguished leader of the Liberal Party in Parliament, Baron Von Vincke, did it only on the ground that the Parliament is incompetent to pass resolutions on ecclesiastical questions.

In connection with the question of Church constitution, the progress of the Rationalistic controversy keeps up in the German Churches a great excite

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