ON THE ABUSE OF "THE SENTENCE OF GOD'S To the Editor of the Christian Observer. I SHOULD be much obliged to some experienced clergyman or lay Christian, to inform me through the medium of your pages, what is the most proper method of dealing with irreligious persons who attempt to justify or to mitigate their neglect of God and their souls, by a species of fatalism grounded upon perverted views of human impotence and Divine predestination. Such characters, to my knowledge, are not uncommon, especially among young persons who have been early accustomed to listen to doctrinal controversies, while their affections are devoted to worldly objects. They argue thus: "I wish I was what I know I ought to be : I feel that I am a sinner; but I cannot change my own heart: God must do that it is useless to pray or strive; I must wait till he works in me; and in the mean time it would be but hypocrisy in me to pretend to religion, or to say that I do not prefer what I admit to be the vanities of the present world; and as to breaking off a few things that are wrong, it would be but an outward reformation, and not true conversion." I do not pause to say how absurd is such reasoning; or to inquire whether it may not sometimes arise from incorrect statements of Scriptural truth, by which the doctrines of grace are so set forth as to lead men to neglect the means of salvation, rather than diligently to use them. But as the case does, to my knowledge, exist, and I believe more frequently than is obvious, the question is, What is the way in which it ought to be treated? how are we to guard against unsound inferences while maintaining sound doctrine? how set forth free justification through Christ, the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, and the sinfulness of all works done" before the grace of God," and yet urge prayer, striving, and those other means of grace, which the objector, whether weakly or wilfully, says he is not yet in a condition to employ with acceptance. If any of your readers have had experience in this matter, and have, by the Divine blessing, been successful in sweeping away this" refuge of lies" in any instance, I should be greatly obliged by their communicating the result of their experience. J. NOTE ON ACTS xix. 2-4. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. YOUR correspondent E. F. in your Number for August, p. 524, though he has elaborately discussed W. B. T.'s inquiry (p. 451), respecting adult Baptism, hardly gives due weight to the interpretation suggested by W.B. T.'s friend for the passage Acts xix. 2-4. The passage has an important bearing on several other questions: and that interpretation is not only allowed by our own translation, but is absolutely demanded, as it appears to me, by the original. The well-known idiom of the Greek language, which requiresμev' to be followed by de,' shews that same speaker who said Ιωαννης μεν ἐβαπτισε (verse 4), said also ακέσαντες δε, &c. If this be so, the passage, instead of favouring the idea that John's disciples were re-baptized, goes far towards proving that their baptism was essentially the same as ours. I have not in the course of my own reading met with this criticism any where but in Baxter's Reformed Pastor; and I am only sorry I cannot refer to the passage itself, as your readers will be glad to connect his great name with so neat a solution of the difficulty. ARCA. LATIN DEVOTIONAL RHYMES. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. As I perceive that some of your correspondents have an excellent faculty in versifying in the mother tongue the relics of old Latin devotional rhymes, I enclose the following lines, which I think well deserve their attention. Perhaps they could also inform me of their origin or authorship, of which I am ignorant, having met with them accidentally and detached. C. Jesu, clemens, pie Deus! Jesu bone, Jesu pie, DE AMORE JESUS. Quisnam possit enarrare, Tecum pati, tecum flere, O Majestas infinita, Fac nos dignos te videre, In beata cœli vita, METRICAL SKETCHES ON THE FESTIVALS, BY To the Editor of the Christian Observer. I HAPPENING to turn on Michaelmas-day to the Bishop of Down's "Biographical Notices of the Apostles and Evangelists, and other Saints,' thought the following verses on the festival of that day so beautiful, that I transcribed them; and I shall be glad to see them inserted in your miscellany, for the perusal of your readers. The book being in my hands, I send you another of the Right Reverend author's metrical sketches, that for the festival of St. Simon and St. Jude, celebrated on the twentyeighth of the present month October. Also, as your Number comes out on All-Saints day, the first of November, I add that also, though it is not equal in poetry to the first or second; and in one or two lines the metre has marred the theology, as in stanza six, which would seem to confine the atonement of Christ to the " saints," instead of its being universal, contrary to Bishop Mant's known sentiment. The last line of the fourth stanza runs, "who serve him best below," which I have mended in sentiment, though not in versification, by substituting "here below." THE HOLY ANGELS. O THOU, who sitt'st on high, Encircled by thy six-wing'd seraph train; Whom rapt Isaiah view'd, As round thy throne they stood, And heard them chanting in alternate strain, "O holy, holy, holy, Lord of hosts, Whose glory fills the earth, while heaven thy presence boasts :" Lord of the earth and sky, Or wendest forth to manifest thy will; Attendant spirits wait, To swell thy pomp, and thy behests fulfil : Where'er thou art, thine angel hosts are there, Bright as the lambent flame, free as the viewless air. CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 371. 4 Ꮓ For man's intended race, Heaven's wide expanse with Hallelujah rang; When Thou, on Israel's day, Gavest forth from Sinai's top the "fiery law:" (While peal'd the trumpet's sound,) Thou camest in lowly guise to visit earth: The news thy angel told, And heavenly voices hymn'd the Saviour's birth: And peace restor❜d to earth, and love for man's lost race. When thou shalt come in glorious majesty : Shall call the tribes of men From the four corners of the ambient sky: To judgment," hark, a shout proclaims abroad! EMANUEL, thou shalt welcome for thine own : Of angels they shall stand, And sing to Him who sitteth on the throne ; Wait at thy bidding, at thy bidding move : On earth thy sovereign will, As they fulfil it in thy courts above: That striving now to serve thee, ev'n as they, ST. SIMON AND st. Jude's DAY. SAVIOUR, Who, exalted high Of thy dwelling here on earth; Offspring of the Virgin's womb; Son of Man, to thee I cry! By the rite, when first began A firstborn, in the house of God; By the wisdom past thine age, By the hallowed water shed By the tempter's wiles subdued; Christ, Anointed, hear me cry! By thy works with mercy fraught, Lord, thy presence let me see ; Manifest thyself to me! Man of Sorrows, hear me cry! By thy great humility; Prince of Life, to thee I cry! By the earthquake's powerful shock; Lord of Glory, God most high, ALL-SAINTS' DAY. "The spirits of just men made perfect." THERE is a dwelling-house above; The poor in spirit go. May feast, nor crave again. Shall bliss the pure in heart. The friends of peace shall know. Now pause, and view the votaries o'er, The Saviour's blessing seek. And here the pure in heart; and here, And they who peace ensue ; These are the saints, the holy ones, His call with willing mind obey; Those spirits just unite But God has wiped away the tear ON THE CHARACTER OF GALLIO. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. PERMIT me to open the inquiry, What sort of a man was Gallio, of whom mention was made in Acts xviii. as the deputy or proconsul of Asia. The matter is of no great importance in itself; but, as it affects the moral application of a passage in Sacred History, it may be worth consideration. The term Gallionism is currently used to express that indifference to the truths of religion which is the result of philosophy falsely so called; and the origin of the term seemed sufficiently explained by the conduct of that officer on the occasion recorded by St. Luke. But this opinion is opposed to the estimate of Gallio's character, as given by some of the commentators; as for instance, Dr. Doddridge, in his Family Expositor. Mr. Horne, likewise, in his Introduction (vol. i. p. 194. 5th edition), agreeing with Doddridge, in substance, says,-" Luke gives an honourable character to Gallio for justice, impartiality, prudence, and mildness of disposition; and this account is confirmed by Gallio's brother, the celebrated philosopher Seneca, who represents him as a man of great wit and good sense, of a sweet and gentle disposition, and of much generosity and virtue." In a note on this place, Mr. Horne quotes the following expressions of Seneca - Solebam tibi dicere, Gallionem fratrem meum, (quem nemo non parum amat, etiam qui amare plus non potest,) alia vitia non nôsse, hoc etiam, (i. e. adulationem) odisse. . . Nemo enim mortalium uni tam dulcis est quam hic omnibus. . . Hoc quoque loco blanditiis tuis restitit, ut exclamares invenisse te inexpugnabilem virum adversus insidias quas nemo non in sinum recipit." L. Ann. Seneca Natural. Quæst. lib. iv. in præf. I cannot discover in these passages any thing of Gallio's "great wit, good sense,' or generosity," or see in what manner they confirm the character said to be given of him by St. Luke for "justice, impartiality, and prudence," unless his possession of these good qualities may be inferred from his aversion to flattery. If Seneca says nowhere else more in praise of his brother than appears in these quotations, his authority seems to have been referred to rather hastily. If such be my impression with regard to the "confirmation strong from the testimony of Seneca, I am still less satisfied with the alleged "proofs of Holy Writ." The historian St. Luke gives no formal "character" of him at all: he expresses neither praise nor censure of his conduct; and his whole account of him is comprised in a simple statement of facts unaccompanied by comment of any kind. Were I to form an unhesitating judgment from my own view of the evidence, my conclusions would materially differ from that of Mr. Horne. I see little justice in a governor's withholding his protection from a subject, when exposed to the brutal fury of a mob. I see little impartiality in listening to the |