ter of the land, has God spoken to the heart of the nation in words of warning. Men are too prone to forget that they are but shadows trembling on the verge of an uncertain existence. They look upon life as something on which they have a claim, something which is certain and enduring, and forgetting that they are but sojourners and strangers, they rest their affections upon the things of this world, its pleasures and its honors, while the things of eternity, the interests of their immortal souls, are neglected.

NOTE TO THE EDITOR.-A reader of the Evergreen has perused with interest the remarks (p. 221 of the July number) on the Institution Office, and on the opinion of Bishop White, concerning the words "altar" and "sacerdotal" used in that formulary. The following extract, from one of Bishop White's compositions, may give further light. It is the concluding paragraph of the "Address of Bishop White at the Consecration of Bishop" [H. U.] "Onderdonk," -printed in the Church Register, Vol. II., for 1827, pp. 389, 390. The times make it worthy fresh notice.

"There remains of the duties of the occasion, the celebration of the great sacrifice for sin, which was prefigured in animal sacrifices from the time of the expulsion from Paradise; and will be commemorated to the end of time, in the spiritual sacrifice which is to follow."

God who loveth all men, and who chasteneth whom He loveth, sends griefs, and trials, disap-of pointments, and afflictions, upon the children of men, as means to withdraw their thoughts from the vanities of earth, and fix them where alone true peace can be found. Death invades the sanctuary of home, and in the desolation of heart which follows, the soul realizes the nothingness of things of sense, and flees for refuge and support to that Source whence alone come gifts that can minister to the wants of an undying soul. And sometimes, as at the present, the whole country is startled from their dream of security, and their consequent forgetfulness of God, by a sudden and unexpected visitation, which thrills the pulse and blanches the cheek of every member of the community, and causes every man to realize that neither power, nor honor, nor health, can stay the footsteps of the Destroying Angel, when the decree has once gone forth.

We have seen a strong man smitten down. Honors had clustered around him; high station, perhaps we might say, the highest station, the proudest station in the world-had been freely offered him. His unsullied integrity, his unquestioned patriotism, had won for him the affections of a great people. They rejoiced in the Chief Magistrate of their choice. But in the midst of this universal joy there comes up a note of wailing which spreads and deepens until every other sound is buried beneath its overwhelming wave. That man, who had braved the perils of the battle, who amid danger and death had upborne the standard of his country, and maintained her honor against the most fearful odds, who, as far as human reason can judge, blended in himself the character of a soldier, a patriot, and a Christian, is no more; has gone down to that grave, whither tend the footsteps of all men. May this sad affliction be blessed to our individual and national good!

We insert with much pleasure the following from a source to which we are often indebted for valuable communications:

It will be observed, that the excellent Bishop calls the Holy Communion, then immediately to be administered, "the commemorative spiritual sacrifice,”—recognising in that ordinance a sacrifice," and one that is outward as well as in the heart.

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As intimated in our last, we propose noticing, from time to time, such matters in the proceedings of the different Diocesan Conventions, as may seem to be of general interest.

In the Convention of VIRGINIA, which met on the fifteenth of May, a canon was passed which seems to us to have introduced an entirely new principle into our Church-the prescribing by diocesan authority of new terms of com

munion: the result of which is, that communicants in one Diocese may not be allowed to be such in another; that a certificate of good standing as a communicant in another Diocese, cannot be received by a Virginia pastor, without his ascertaining, by a law not known to the Church at large, whether the holder of the certificate is fit to be a Virginia communicant; and that a communicant residing in either of the contiguous Dioceses-Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, or North Carolinanear the Virginia line, may not be able to commune with his neighbors because he is not a Virginia Christian.

It is not our intention to enter upon a full discussion of the grave questions touching ecclesiastical order involved in this matter. We beg our intelligent readers, however, to reflect, whether such proceedings are not at variance with the principle of a national branch of the Catholic Church at unity with itself; whether

they do not trench upon what ought, for the preservation of such unity, to be considered as the prerogative of the General Convention; whether, when the rubrics of our common liturgy, by which Dioceses and Parishes, as well as individual Bishops, Clergy, and Laity, are bound, do not debar Christians from Christian privileges, diocesan conventions can do so, consistently with their allegiance to the federal ecclesiastical compact; whether, if the regulations or restrictions of the General Convention, on any subject, may be narrowed or enlarged by diocesan authority, they may not on any other, and thus our Rubrics, and General Constitution, and General Canons, be subjected to nullification by any and every Diocese; and whether, if one can go beyond the definitions of the general law of the Church in matters of habits and morals, another may not, in matters of faith, and thus open the door to as many conventional decisions as there are dioceses, on mooted questions touching the meaning of our articles and formularies, and to the making of such decisions tests of the right of communion in the Lord's Supper.

subject belongs to the General Convention, and not to the Dioceses.

Some suggestions on these points, however, may not be out of place. In reference to these, it is an obvious dictate of justice to draw a broad distinction between the two questions, Whether a thing is desirable, or in one's private estimation right, and, Whether it is expedient to legislate respecting it. It would be a gross violation of Christian principle, and Christian morals, to fault those who are opposed to legislating on any of the above mentioned matters contained in the Virginia Canon, with being therefore favorable to the things themselves. The fear of something like this is very apt, on many practical subjects, to prevent a frank expression of opinion, and consistent action on that opinion. But this is a kind of fear, applying to a great variety of subjects-founded on too much regard for ourselves and for the opinions of others, and arguing defect in true Christian faith-a selfish fear of consequences—into which though good men may often be betrayed, yet is it inconsistent with the allegiance due to the truth and the right On the present subject, it should be sufficient encouragement for those who differ from the judgment of the Convention, to know that fourteen of the Virginia Clergy, and fifteen of the lay delegates, all of them communicants, voted in the negative; and these, it may be presumed, are not behind their brethren in honest piety, and faithful keeping of the baptismal renunciations.

It is a fact established alike by Scripture and human history and experience, that perfection is unattainable in the Church below. It is impossible for any kind or degree of discipline to prevent there being mingled in it the evil

The Virginia Canon to which we now refer, enumerates “gaming, attendance on horse racing and theatrical amusements, witnessing immodest and licentious exhibitions or shows," and "attending public halls," among "offences for which discipline should be exercised." What is to hinder other dioceses from including the purchase and holding of slaves, belonging to a masonic lodge, or to any order or association having secret principles, pledges, or operations, the use as a beverage of any intoxicating drinks, refusal to enter into any moral-reform project which may be a favorite with the Convention, the bearing of arms for war, the indulg-with the good. The tares cannot all be rooted ing in what may be thought improper dress, or up. It has pleased God to have it so; and true any thing else that may be deemed “conduct- faith will earnestly believe, that this is for some ing in a manner unworthy of a Christian?" wise and good end. Experience has also clearly And what then would become of that character shown that evil has arisen from efforts to draw for unity, conservatism, sound Christian moder-the cord of discipline too tight. Serious warnation, and good judgment, which now ranks ourings on this subject are before the Church in the Church so high in the esteem of the friends of social and public order, of good government, and of thorough, consistent, enduring, and truly efficient religious and moral principle?.

In reference to the view of the subject which we would now very seriously commend to the deep consideration of the true and enlightened friends of the Church, it is not necessary to say a word touching the merits of the particular provisions of this Canon, or the character of the things proscribed. If we are right, the whole

moral consequences that have been felt to flow from the notions of peculiar sanctity connected with monastic vows, with puritanic discipline, with penances and mortifications, and with the requirement of highly wrought feelings, of changes, experiences, and enthusiastic and ecstatic devotions. The substance of religion has been found to be thus sacrificed to its form and show: the merit of doing or the merit of abstaining has so absorbed the mind, as to corrupt the only true principle of evangelical obedience,

whence genuine piety and morality can be efficient moral sense, sincere and heartfelt piety, expected to flow: the exhaustion of care and { and sound conscientiousness, are more likely to solicitude on particular points of doing or not be induced by the persuasive influences of affecdoing, has left little to be given to general vir- tionate and serious pastoral counsel and admotue and holiness of life: as if Satan would draw nition, backed by an example of cheerful and off attention from the self-inconsistency thus earnest personal religion, than by strict and rigmanifested, he tempts to the turning of compa- orous discipline. This, in constraining the conrison from one's self to others; deducing from duct, often fails to touch the heart. The things the selected points of peculiar regard, occasion named in the Virginia Canon are indeed freof proud magnifying of one's own superiority toquent sources of injury to the Church, and to his neighbors; and of thus indulging the worst the Christian character of individuals, and may kind of worldly and ungodly tempers and dis-justly be made subjects of earnest remonstrance positions: minuteness in enumerating things by the loving and anxious pastor. There are forbidden, invariably operates as a supposed sanction of things omitted; often to the serious injury of religion and morals: ingenuity rarely fails to invent, in favor of craved indulgences, such changes in form or in non-essential circumstances, as will evade the precise description of the thing forbidden, and yet substitute what is virtually the same-perhaps morally worse.

things akin to them, however, not therein made canonical offences, equally and perhaps more injurious and dangerous; and a little change of circumstances would remove some of these forbidden things from the purview of the canon, and thus invest them with a plausible appearance of sanction, while not a whit decreasing their objectionable character and their danger.

It is gratifying to reflect-and we believe the remark is sanctioned by experience in both our mother-Church and our own-that the more spiritual views of the Church and its sacraments which have of late years prevailed; the more general realizing of the fact that outward membership of the Church involves a spiritual union with Christ its Head, the responsibilities and claims of which, as a real thing, even the most insensible, and hardened, and guilty, in that membership, cannot shake off; and the conse

We think great deference is due to the fact that the General Council of our Church has not thought fit-though it has been urged-to make any addition to the rubrical provision for ground of exclusion from the Communion. We think it will be found that whenever the Church, or sects extraneous from it, have sought to do by discipline, more than separate from communion those whose disqualifications are so open and notorious, and so confessedly, by the common voice of the Church, evil, and involve such flagrant wrong, malice, and hatred, as to produce serious offence; and have undertaken to establish arbitrary stan-quent reasonable suggestions of consistency and dards of piety and morals; they have, as a general thing, not really subserved the substantial and permanent interests of religion and virtue. The guard of law and penalty being set to shut out whatsoever is notoriously and fatally hostile to those interests, much must be left to the influence of pastoral counsel and admonition. These may and should be governed by the pastor's own convictions of what is, not only positively wrong, but dangerous, and inexpedient, and be enforced with all the warmth and earnestness which may be dictated by an enlightened viewvotion to the true and enlightened preaching of of official duty. We think the history of the Church justifies the conclusion, that a pure and

The Church undoubtedly designed to use the word "Offended" in the rubric, as it is used in the Bible; where it means, not as now ordinarily taken, the exciting of individual displeasure; but the occasioning of lapses from the faith or the Church, placing these in so false a light, touching their requirements, as to lead to departures from them.

safety; have had a favorable influence on the character and conduct of communicants. Let prayers and efforts be devoted to the continued and increasing operation of the same cause. Let zealous support and example be extended to its blessed means of influence, in sound catholic religious training of the young; in investing the Church's services with all their proper beauty and impressiveness of holiness; in the more constant celebration of those services; in adding to all, unwearied and disinterested de

the Gospel, and to affectionate and solicitous discharge of the varied pastoral functions, in the Church, from house to house, and to individual Christians; and in the constant faithful prayer that these means of grace may be blessed of God.

The PENNSYLVANIA Convention met on Tuesday in Whitsun Week, May 21st. At the meeting last year, a resolution was passed, almost

without a dissenting voice, expressing the satis- men who best understood how Christ and His faction it would afford the Diocese, if the House Apostles would have had it governed and adof Bishops would remove the disabilities im-ministered; and who is acquainted with our posed upon its late diocesan. Good Christians Office for the Consecration of Bishops. Accordrejoiced at this as evidence that the true spiriting to this, Bishops are the pastors of the Church, of the Gospel prevailed in the Convention. At whose duty it is diligently to preach God's word; the late meeting, an effort was made to counter- to instruct the people committed to their charge; to act this by a side-blow. The merits of the teach and exhort with wholesome doctrine; to be question were tested by introducing a resolu- evermore ready to spread abroad the Gospel, the tion to lay on the table the preamble and reso- { glad tidings of reconciliation with God; as wise lution thus intended to undo the good work of and faithful servants, to give to the Lord's family last year. This resolution to lay on the table their portion in due season; to hold up the weak, was carried by the following votes:-Clergy, heal the sick, bind up the broken, bring again the Ayes 50, Noes 15: Laity, (voting by Churches) outcasts, seek the lost; and to be earnest, preachAyes 34, Noes 8, Divided, 1.—Of the Noes, it is {ing the word, to reprove, beseech, and rebuke, said that some would have voted against the with all patience and doctrine. How could lanoriginal resolution, had the question been put guage more clearly show that by the law of our directly, but were opposed to laying on the ta- Church (whose Liturgy is its most solemn and ble. Eight clergymen declined voting. binding law) Bishops are, in an eminent sense, Here, then, was a second triumph of that as were Timothy, Titus, and the apocalyptic Ancharity which is the greatest virtue of the Gos-gels, pastors to the people committed to their pel. We fear that the want of faith in the Church is a serious hindrance to a due appreciation of the power of love. It is peculiarly gratifying to see the name of the Junior editor of The Episcopal Recorder among those in the affirmative. Let the spirit thus manifested pervade the columns of his paper, and it will never want friends among true Christians.

charge, that is, their Dioceses? And if pastors, then surely chief pastors. Those good people may have Deacons ministering to them, they may have Priests, they may have Rectors, they may have Assistant Ministers; still their Bishop is their Pastor: nor-whatever the intrusion of worldly principles and feelings into priestly bosoms, and into Church theories, may objectwould the clergy find themselves lower in huThe Convention of the Diocese of MARYLAND mility than the spirit of the Gospel would have met May 29th. In our last we inserted a very them, should they gladly recognize in their resable and valuable report of a Committee ap-pective Bishops their own pastors, and feel pripointed on a subject which has, since the vileged to have opportunity of waiting on their Convention, been widely discussed in the ministrations. Church -a Bishop's right to administer the And yet, sad to say! the excitement produced Communion at his visitations, and take what by this Maryland case, has led to the taking of part in the services he pleases. Resolutions ground essentially this :--That Bishops, and strongly advocating this right, and settling the therefore Clergy, have no inherent right of pasprinciple for the Diocese of Maryland, were ap- toral ministration, other than a sort of latent pended to the above mentioned report, and right which they have no power to call into acpassed by large majorities of both clergy and tion, save as rubrics and canons provide. Rulaity. And as the circumstance that gave rise brics and Canons regulating, they conceive of to this action occurred some four months before as imparting, episcopal or clerical functions. No the Convention, and was much talked of, it is man who understands the Christian system, as reasonable to suppose that at least a portion of divinely established in the Christian Church, the delegates were chosen with a special refer-will consider our Canon "Of Episcopal Visitaence to it, and that all were acquainted with {tions" as giving the Bishop the right to make the general views and wishes of their constitu- such visitations for the purposes therein specients. The action, therefore, may be considered fied. This right is inherent in his office, as its as very fairly speaking the sentiments of the duties are laid upon him by the Bible, by the Maryland Church. Indeed it is difficult to con- essential principles of the Catholic Church, and ceive how other sentiments can be held by any by our own Consecration Office. The Canon, as one who has diligently read Holy Scripture and is the case with a large portion of civil and ecancient authors; who knows how the Church clesiastical law, so enforces a duty of moral obwas governed and administered by those holy ligation, as to allow of discipline in the event

of its being neglected; which could not be preaching, as an ordinary pastoral function, is exercised if special law had not enforced the duty. There is no knowing to what extent of anti-christian substitutions for sound evangelical views of Christ's Church and ministry, the theory here faulted might go. One obvious result presents itself to our mind: If Bishops have no ight of official ministrations, save those which rubrics and canons give, neither have Presby-White in reference to another whim of the same ters. If those cannot preach except as thus provided, neither can these. We believe the only positive rubrical or canonical law respecting

the rubric providing for the sermon after the { Gospel in the Communion Service. The Church, therefore, allows of no sermons (they are an unlawful burden upon the people--an infringement of their right to do without a sermon) except when the Ante-Communion service is read!! Well may we here apply the words of Bishop

BOOK TABLE.

The English Bishop," alluded to is, we opine, a purely fabulous personage. The book possesses some interest, and contains in it much that is good, but it belongs to the liberal school in religion; that is, to that school which has no WE HAVE also received from the same firm distinctive principles, and which includes within Part 4 of Southey's Life and Correspondence, ait, theoretically at least, every phase of religious