In short, it is hardly to be denied that the England of our day has few affinities in doctrine, in spirit, or in social and individual impulse with the Puritian period. If this fruit has grown on the Puritan tree, then either the tree has been radically changed, or a new branch has been grafted into it, and has absorbed the whole sap of the aged and honourable Puritan trunk; or at least, so much of it, that we may fairly speak of the wide-spread and towering graft as "the modern tree."

(2.) That such is likely to have been the case will be seen if we consider the state of Puritanism in England at the beginning of the eighteenth century. As far as we can discover, there is every reason for believing that that great movement was defunct as an aggressive and inspiring force. It had spent itself. The signs of vitality were few and scant. It yielded nothing but leaves, and those not of a very attractive sort. "The age of faith" had given place to an age of abstract speculation. Christianity was a hard and acrid syllogism instead of a rich and inspiring life; it existed only to be proved and not to live by. Locke's treatise on the "reasonableness of Christianity" is typical of the altered condition of things; and one of many signs that the Church of Christ had become a school of disputation, that religion was confounded with science, and that man was regarded as though he consisted of nothing but brain. Puritanism was dead in trespasses and sins, and needed to be made a new creature" in Christ Jesus by the breath of the Spirit of a Great Evangelical Revival.

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We suppose this is admitted. We heartily wish it need not be. For the credit of Puritanism, and for the sake of our fathers' fame, we should be glad if it could be refuted. But the facts preclude it. Dr. Stoughton says of Methodism," it was a reaction against cold formality, indolence and apathy, also against the neglect of doctrines dear to the Reformers and Puritans. In the January Contemporary Karl Hillebrand writes of the Dissenters, "They still lived on, and lost but few of their adherents; but they won no new ones." That may be called "life;" but is it? Then he adds an item, mightly significant of the tendencies of the era. "Only the young sect of the Unitarians, so entirely the creation of the last century, grew and flourished." Pattison says, "the sermons of that day were a complete reaction against the Puritan sermons of the seventeenth century." Watts described the preaching of his time when he said, "A statue hung round with moral sentences, or a marble pillar with divine truths inscribed upon it, may preach coldly to the understanding, while devotion freezes at the heart. And he urged the need for "life and zeal in the ministry of the word," though they may be "the ridicule of an age which pretends to nothing but calm reasoning." Doddridge, who may be regarded as the link between the Old Puritanism and the New Methodism, gave to the world in 1730, his " Free Thoughts on the most probable mode of reviving the Dissenting interest," and found, at a later date, that he had exasperated Watts and others by opening his pulpit to Whitfield and the expression of sympathy with the fervid and zealous efforts of the leaders of the Evangelical Revival. Nathanial Neal, son of the historian of the Puritans, issued a "Free and Serious Remonstrance to Dissenting Ministers on occasion

* Religion in England under Queen Anne, ii. 363. Essays and Reviews, p. 279. Watts's Words, Vol. I., p. lxxxiv., Dedication to Sermons on the Inward Witness of Christianity.

ENOCH WALKED WITH GOD."

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of the Decay of Religion."* But it is not necessary to cite further witnesses; and as for rebutting evidence we know of none of any real weight. Puritanism as a doctrine, a spirit, a life and a force was, if not dead, in so profound a swoon for nearly a century, that it was of little avail to meet the pressing necessities, acute sorrows, and increasing sins of men.

Add this to the want of affinity between the England of 1880, and the England of Milton and Cromwell, and the presumption grows strong that the England of to-day "owes its characteristic qualities and forces" not to Puritanism, which had ceased to live and move and have its being, but "to a large influx of new power within the first sixty or seventy years of the last century."

(3.) Moreover, if by the words "origin," "root," "grand initial movement," the Freeman means the first, in the whole series of causes and agents, productive of nineteenth century England; or, the most potent and essential of those causes; then it will scarcely satisfy the data of history to stop at the mighty Puritan development. We must go beyond. We must dig deeper. Wycliff, and Tyndale, and Coverdale, and their comrades in heroic service must not be forgotten. Puritanism without the Bible is an impossibility. The Puritans are in a sublime sense the children and heirs of the Reformers, as in the same sense, Whitfield and Wesley are the successors of the Puritans; and all in the same sense are the off-spring of Him who is the Second Adam, the head and founder of a new humanity. So that just, as we may truly say, that the whole history of human progress since the birth of Christ, on its moral and spiritual sides, is the history of Christianity; in like manner may we affirm that "the whole history of English progress since the Restoration, on its moral and spiritual sides, has been the history of Puritanism." And having said that it would be perfectly and undeniably true to affirm, as we have done, that the characteristic qualities and forces of the England of to-day are due to a large influx of new power within the first fifty or sixty years of the last century; although that power proceeds from the same source as Puritanism and Christianity. There are diversities of operation, but it is the same God which worketh all in all." We gain nothing by crediting Puritanism with the work that is really due to that Great Eighteenth Century Regeneration, of which Methodism is a signal and conspicuous example. JOHN CLIFFORD.

44

Enoch alked with God."

O BLESSED estate, O fellowship divine,
Such high, such sweet communion Lord be
mine,

To walk with Thee! with Thee hold converse
sweet,

Thy voice to hear, Thy smile of love to meet.

Far from the hollow world's deceitful glare
To bathe my spirit in a purer air,
To lean on Thee, to trust Thy love alone,
Making to Thee my cares, my griefs all
known.

To meet Thine eye, to hold Thy guiding
hand,

And know it safe will lead amid an alien land:

Thy counsel seek, to Thee my all confide,
My Friend of friends, the Faithful, True, and
Tried.

The friends of earth may change-perchance
may die,

E'en where I fondest cling, most firm rely:
From earthly shadows which evade the grasp,
Unlock the heart whose tendrils round them
clasp.

My Saviour God, O may Thy wondrous love
Constrain this treacherous heart no more to

rove:

Be Thou my Central Star, mv Guide, my Sun;
Walk Thou with me till travelling days are
done.
A. DAINTY.

J. J. Taylor's Religious Life of England, 389.

The English Reformation: how it came about,

and why we should uphold it."

AMONGST the books that may be warmly commended to young men and maidens for reading during these winter evenings, no one deserves to take precedence of this story of the most thrilling period of English history by the author of "the Life and Words of Christ." Whether we consider the topic, or the time; the method of treatment or the necessities of the hour, we are alike constrained to urge not only its immediate and earnest study, but also its wide circulation.

Dr. Geikie quotes, in his preface, the words of an English bishop to the following effect, "I am perfectly convinced that the Reformation is menaced, and that a corrupt form of worship and teaching is now being insidiously introduced. We have to deal not with individuals, but with a conspiracy. The present state of things cannot go on long, and the comfort is it could not well be worse."

What is the "present state of things?" Dr. Geikie himself, now a member of the Anglican Church, shall answer. He says the English Church Union, which is a Ritualist league, numbers 2,551, and they "are banded together to resist the law." "Ritualism is Romanism," disguise it who may. In Brighton five clergymen have passed over to Rome. More than half the ladies connected with one of the sisterhoods are now in the Church of Rome. Another sisterhood, under the special direction of Dr. Pusey, has gone over bodily to Rome." Six sisters from one of Mr. Mackonochie's sisterhoods have joined the Romish communion. Ritualists avow frankly that their object is "ultimate union with Rome;" and these are some of the facts which show that they are realizing their object.

Now, one of the methods of the Ritualists is to malign the Reformation; and one of the most crushing verdicts against Romanism, with or without a Pope, is that same Reformation. Hence this book: hence the necessity for patriots and Christians to study this period of our national history.

Nor can students have a better guide than Dr. Geikie. On one or two points he is not to our mind. He does not see the radical and incurable mischief of the alliance between the Church and State. This is a fatal and flagrant error, but the facts of the book are an ample exposure of the pernicious results of such an unnatural union. He also describes the Prayer Book "as a safeguard of Protestantism"- —an affirmation we regard as proved to be the direct contrary of the truth by the undeniable logic of facts: but passing over such defects as these, Dr. Geikie's treatment of the theme is singularly masterly. He is fully conversant with the era he pourtrays; brings to light points that were formerly obscure; arranges his materials with consummate skill; deals fairly and justly with opponents; and has a style that is as clear as sunlight, and as interesting and picturesque as the sunny south. Our Sunday school teachers should have it. It ought to be used as a prize-book in our Young Men's Societies. We most heartily commend it. JOHN CLIFFORD.

* By Cuningham Geikie, D.D., author of "The Life and Words of Christ." Third Edition. Price 7s. 6d. Strahan & Co.

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Leaves out of our Church Books.

WE often hear ministers and others discussing "modes of action," with a strong desire to discover any fresh methods Christian ingenuity has invented of 'winning souls," or of ministering to the strength and grace of those who have been won into fellowship with Christ and with one another. Very glad shall we be to give a column to the reports and discussions of "fresh ways of doing good," hoping thereby "to provoke to love and good works," and thus increase the efficiency of our churches. Not exactly as a sample, but as the first things to hand of this character, I report the following:

I.-NEW MEMBERS' MEETING.

For some years we have held at Praed Street, early in each new year, a gathering of all those who have been added to the church during the previous twelve months. This time about two hundred met together; the total adddition for the twelve months being a little in excess of 200. The tea was furnished by the officers of the church, and they, with their wives, acted the part of hosts. One of the first things done (important in a church of nearly one thousand members) is the verification of addresses, each one being asked to supply, if necessary, a corrected address on entry. An enjoyable tea and much fraternization follows, it being considered that each one has an "introduction" to every other one, in and by the circumstance of uniting with the church IN THE SAME YEAR. The pastor presides and gives a "talk" on the glorious brotherhood of souls into which the company has entered; describes the simple and beautiful original" of that brotherhood in the New Testament; the privileges and responsibilities springing from the union; the necessity of maintaining a glowing spiritual and social life, and kindred topics. "New" members then give brief and hearty utterances. Members transferred from "other charches" tell how they "took to their new home." Deacons and elders follow with words of counsel; and this, together with singing and prayer, yields a very profitable and salutary meeting.

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The advantages of this New Members' Meeting are—

(1.) It gives an opportunity for the exposition of "church principles."

(2.) It promotes intercourse between pastors, deacons, elders, and members. (3.) It makes the "stranger" feel "like a child at home."

(4.) An opportunity is afforded for finding "workers."

(5.) It tends to give "solidarity"-pardon the word-to the life of the church; blending the old and new into a compact unity through the communing of those just received with the older and more official portion of the church.

II. SECTIONAL MEETINGS.

Our church is divided into eight alphabetically arranged sections or regiments. Each regiment has an elder, who acts as a captain, attends to the members on his list in case of sickness or discipline; reports, as occasion requires, to the pastor or assistant-pastor, on anything requiring his attention, and meets his fellowcaptains, with the commanding officers-in-chief, once a month, to report on his division. This all the year round. But once a year, each captain in turn summons the members of his division to a "gathering." They meet him and his fellow-officers. This gives us eight meetings a year. These meetings are social, spiritual, practical. They vary in their character according to the inventive genius of each head of division: monotony being considered by all the bane of usefulness. Sometimes a "paper" is read and a discussion follows. Sometimes a question is raised, such as 'what are the duties of church members ?" and answers are obtained. Sometimes addresses are given. Spiritual vitality is the one point aimed at.

These "leaves" are taken out of "our church book;" not because we desire to live "with our heart upon our sleeve for daws to peck at;" not from any lack of intensest aversion to what has been called "religious brag"-indeed, for no other reason than that named-to suggest to any churches which may care to adopt them, methods of action we have found of great good. Let us have some leaves from other church books.

JOHN CLIFFORD.

In Memoriam.

ANN BRITTAIN, KIRKBY-IN-ASHFIELD,

WAS born at Nuncar Gate, Kirkby Woodhouse, on May 14th, 1795. Her mother died the day following; and the baby was committed to the care of her maternal aunt, who was a member of the church at Woodhouse. Her aunt and uncles were Baptists of a largely developed type, and their anxiety for their charge was that her early religious culture and principles should be formed in the same mould; and thus, in her early life, she became attached to our church polity and connexional interests, so laying the foundation for her after steadfastness, and adherence to our principles, which only intensified with her increasing years, and her convictions of the truth.

She attended, with her aunt, the house of God at Woodhouse until the formation of the branch church at Sutton-in-Ashfield, under the ministry of Edward Allen in 1812, and this continued until the chapel at Kirkby was built in 1821.

In 1824 she was married to John Brittain. Both were like-minded, and as General Baptists their creed was well defined; yet for some years she did not make a public confession of her faith in Christ. Although she believed herself to be a Christian, such was her training as to the solemnity of believers' baptism, the obligations it imposed, and as to attending to it at a mature age, that she shrunk from the responsibility. But she saw the error of this, and in May, 1843, she, with a number of others, was baptized by the Rev. J. Wood, of Mansfield, in the open-air, and united with the church. FROM THIS TIME HER FETTERS WERE TAKEN OFF. It was a red-letter day in the history of our home. With this new bond of Christian fellowship came new consecration to service and work.

For many years past her heart and home had always been open for the welcome and accommodation of the ministers and preachers who came to Kirkby and Woodhouse; but from that day, and while her strength permitted, with a new and deepened interest, her feet were swift, and her hands ready to minister to their necessities and comfort, and her reminiscences of the men of the past and the present, both at home and from Orissa, were ever refreshing.

Her knowledge of the connexion, the history of the churches, the Foreign Mission, in which she took a lively interest, and the College, and even the ministers of the churches, was wide, correct, and extensive.

The doings of the Churches, their growth and prosperity, were always read with evident relish and delight from the Magazine and Year Book. Even a few days before her death she asked a friend if he had seen one of the delegates to the late Association at Halifax, anxious for all the information respecting it. "Ah!" she says, "when the Book comes thou must read it to me; I cannot see to read now."

But it was not in words that her religion shone the clearest, but in quiet deeds. Outside her domestic circle she had but little communication. Within that circle she lived and spent her religious influence; but others outside saw it and felt it.

To her only child her full-orbed affection and anxiety for his welfare were ever constant. She could not say much; but the memory of those quiet conversations are fragrant and precious to-day. She had believed, and knew in whom she believed; and that faith, in all her domestic life, sustained and comforted her. Her Bible was precious; her Saviour was precious; His gospel was precious. No theme in conversation like that to her; no sermons so sweet to her as Christ all in all.

In November, 1878, she had a paralytic stroke; and from that time she was confined to her room till the end. Her protracted affliction was borne with patience and resignation. She longed to enter into rest, and often spoke of her approaching end as being near. She would sometimes say, "It will not be long now;" and of her confidence and hope in Christ, her favourite expression was, "On the Rock." The hope that had sustained in life was the anchor for her soul now. Such a confidence and hope in God could well afford to wait all the days of her appointed time till the change came. It came at last. On June 28, 1879, calmly and peacefully she fell asleep, in her 85th year. A. B. N.