Then it further appears, that we have not as a body nearly enough availed ourselves of the press to explain, defend, and propagate our distinctive views on the constitution and government of churches. This Union meditates a tract series in a popular form, which will, we hope, comprise many appropriate pieces on these toples. These we shall be happy to communicate, as there may be opportunity, to you; and still more so to receive from you any productions of a like character published by your body, or by any brethren connected with it.

A delegation from your association to this Union will be welcomed with joy and love, whenever you can so greatly favour us. With great regret we feel unable at present to hold out the expectation of any early visit of brethren deputed by us to visit and salute you in the love and fellowship of Christ.

We are not, brethren, left without tokens of the Divine presence and favour. In our missions, colleges, churches, the power of religion is, we trust, not decaying. Would that it were in sevenfold vigour and prosperity! We rejoice to hear of your blessed success in gathering souls and planting churches. It is our joy that peace continues between our two beloved countries. Amidst struggles and controversies, changes and difficulties, we would abide by our principles. Brethren, pray for us. We wish you the fulness of all heavenly blessings. In the noble state of New York may your churches still be multiplied in number, increased in power, and advanced to eminent influence. May times of refreshing be vouchsafed to you, so that all who witness or hear of your estate may testify that you are a people blessed of the Lord. Signed, in the name and by the direction of the Committee of the Congregational Union of England and Wales. ALGERNON WELLS, Secretary.

OPENING OF A NEW CHAPEL.

MERSEA ISLAND, ESSEX.-A new Independent Chapel, having been built for the church and congregation under the pastoral care of the Rev. H. J. Haas, it was opened on the 16th of September, when the Rev. James Bennett, D.D., of London, preached two sermons of a highly valuable and appropriate character. In the afternoon, a goodly number of the friends dined together at the White Hart Inn; after dinner, Maitland Savill, Esq. being in the chair, several interesting addresses, expressive of the most loyal attachment to our beloved Queen, and a determined adherence to Protestant dissent, were delivered, and met with the unanimous response of the meeting. The collections were good, and the proceedings of the day very encouraging.

The history of dissent at this place furnishes a pleasing illustration of the efficiency of the "Voluntary principle" under circumstances certainly not favourable to its development. Insulated, amongst a small, scattered, and poor population-with two State churches, a Baptist interest, and lately a Wesleyan Society; by the favour of Providence, a few persons of the Independent denomination have for a number of years enjoyed the privileges of a stated ministry of the Gospel. This interest owes its existence, under God, to the benevolent exertions of a single individual, Mr. Hawes, (now one of the deacons of the church) who, in the face of much opposition forty years ago first opened a barn for preaching; it soon became necessary to build a chapel, for which he gave the ground; in process of time, the Divine blessing having attended the labours of the various ministers who supplied the pulpit, a church was formed, and a pastor was chosen. Subsequently, by extraordinary efforts amongst themselves, and generously aided by the surrounding churches, the islanders have happily been enabled to build a dwelling-house for their minister, a new sanctuary. more substantial and commodious than the former one, and a British school-room adjoining; the whole of which is invested in trust. The new chapel is a respectable edifice, very creditable to the skill and spirit of the builder, Mr. George Luskin of Colchester. It is encumbered with a dept of £100, which it is exceedingly desirable should be immediately liquidated.

ORDINATIONS, ETC.

On Tuesday, July 27th, the Rev. John Davis, late student of Newport Pagnell College, was ordained to the pastoral office at Linton, Cambridgeshire. The service was introduced by the Rev. W. Spencer, of Holloway; the Rev. Josiah Bull, M.A., classical tutor of Newport Pagnell College, delivered the introductory discourse; the Rev. H. Madgin, of Duxford, asked the usual questions; the Rev. T. P. Bull offered the ordination prayer with imposition of hands; the Rev. N. M. Harry, of London, delivered the charge to the minister; and the Rev. Mr. Chaplin, of Bishop's Stortford, concluded the service. The evening service was introduced by the Rev. Mr. Bodley, of Steeple Bumpstead; the Rev. W. Spencer, of Holloway, preached to the people; and the service was concluded by the Rev. David Martin, of Creaton. There were upwards of twenty-five ministers present on the occasion.

INDEPENDENT CHAPEL, MARKET DRAYTON, SALOP.-The Rev. John H. Barrow, of Hackney College, has accepted the unanimous invitation of the church and congregation assembling in the above town, and intends (D.V.) entering upon his ministerial duties on the first Sabbath of this month.

REMOVAL.-The Rev. W. Spencer has recently accepted an unanimous invitation from the church and congregation at Princess-street, Devonport, having been compelled to resign his charge at Holloway, through indisposition, medically believed to be excited by the locality.

tion, "find no

BRIEF NOTES ON PASSING EVENTS.

The news from China begins to disclose, as we predicted, what a cruel despot a pagan emperor really is. Keshen, the imperial commissioner, has been ordered to be sawn asunder, and his unoffending family to be put to death. While his agent who negociated with the English commanders has had his flesh torn piecemeal from his bones the dwellings of both have been razed to the ground and the country around them for many miles made desolate. The emperor is frantic with rage and "breathes out threatenings and slaughter." "Let the words make peace," says he in his proclamaplace in your hearts, nor ever give them any form by writing them." He has ordered his grand army of 50,000 men to advance on Canton under the command of his younger brother Meenfang, and his great minister Hoo, and to “sweep the English sail clear from the face of the seas," in order to gratify his imperial mind. But if they dare not to make a thorough extermination of the English rebels, he threatens that "he will put himself at the head of a mighty force and make an end of English guilt, not allowing so much as a bit of broken plank of the English to return." So truly has the apostle declared of the Gentiles that their "mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known."

In FRANCE, a Parisian holiday has again been disgraced by an atrocious attempt to assassinate the young Duc d'Aumale returning in triumph from Algiers at the head of his regiment. The prince and his royal brothers happily escaped the fatal shot, and the wretched assassin was immediately arrested in the act, and conveyed to the dungeon where the regicides Fieschi, Aliband, Meunier, and Darmes had been imprisoned. Reflections suggested by these repeated outrages might be indulged in, unfavourable to the French character, did we not read in the English journals that the life of Lord Howick has been endangered by a ruffian-like attack upon that nobleman and his friends while enjoying the ceremony of chairing after his election to represent the borough of Sunderland. "Jealousy is cruel" in whatever community it may exist, and happy are they who amidst the excitement of party strife can maintain a spirit of forbearance and kindliness towards their rivals for political distinction.

"The advent of Sir Robert Peel," as it has been somewhat irreverently called, has at length come. A debate of four nights in the House of Commons was closed by the passing of a resolution expressive of the want of confidence in the late ministry with a majority of 91! They immediately resigned, and her Majesty commanded the baronet of Tamworth to form a new administration. The elements that are united in the new cabinet, together with the reserve of its premier, leave abundant room for conjectures. All that is at present known is that he proposes to fund 5 millions of exchequer bills, to pass the estimates that his predecessors had prepared, and to prorogue the parliament till next year to obtain time to determine how the exigencies of the country are to be met! But fearful distress already prevails at Manchester, Paisley, &c. and the present misery of the people is aggravated by the prospect of the approaching winter. Men so long within sight of office ought to have known their minds respecting great public questions, before they forced themselves upon the Sovereign and her people. The forbearance of a suffering community in times like these cannot be safely reckoned upon, and it is our fervent wish, rather than our expectation, that the spirit of disquietude may subside with the manifestation of popular indignation.

In SCOTLAND, the troubles of the Kirk thicken, and some recent proceedings in the Court of Session threaten the non-intrusion party with the speedy extinction of their boasted majority in the General Assembly, or at least with the nullification of its acts since 1833. It was in that year that the ministers of the new parishes, quoad sacra, were first received into the church courts, and gave to the evangelical party a majority not before possessed over the moderaters. This accession of strength has enabled them to obtain all their victories in their supreme church court. By a recent appeal to the Lord Ordinary, it has been found that in the eye of the Court of Session, these accessions were not legal, and consequently the proceedings of all Presbyteries, Synods, and Assemblies, that have received such unauthorized members, must be invalid and void. These affairs are therefore hastening to a crisis, and many appre hend that when the trial comes, not a few of the now fervent advocates of the independence of the Kirk will consent to receive the stipends, and yield to the dictates of the state. To increase the difficulties of their position it is said, that there are at least a score of processes now going on in the civil courts against parties involved in this controversy, while members of the laity, having no sympathy with their ministers in this question, withhold their money, and protest against the course of agitation which their pastors have pursued.

The voluntary principle is gaining triumphs in the church of England. A new parish church, one of the noblest in the kingdom, has been built at Leeds by public subscription, in the scene of the parochial labours of the celebrated Dr. Hook. The Oxford taste of that gentleman is seen in the decorations and arrangements of the new edifice. The Church Intelligencer states, that on the morning of the consecration, although it was exceedingly warm, both clergymen and laymen wore their hats in church, as if they were in the open streets, till the episcopal act was performed, “to mark more strongly the difference between the consecrated and unconsecrated building." More than two hundred and fifty clergymen in their surplices and collegiate cowls formed a procession around the church, headed by the venerable Archbishop of York, his Lordship of Ripon, a corp of Archdeacons, and two foreign prelates, who are only lords by courtesy. We know not the subject of the consecration sermon, but it might have been founded on Acts xxviii. 14, " So we went toward Rome.”

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

The absence of the Editor from London, occasions the postponement of editorial acknowledgments till next month.

Erratum in page 639-for "cartouches" read "cartlets."

THE

CONGREGATIONAL MAGAZINE.

NOVEMBER, 1841.

SKETCH OF THE PRESENT STATE OF THEOLOGICAL OPINION IN GERMANY.

As the position and prospects of religious truth always form interesting subjects of contemplation to the Christian reader, and as, I believe, it is one chief object of your journal to give some view of the different phases of Christianity, as they are now successively appearing in the course of its historical development, I have thought that it might not be uninteresting to give a very brief sketch of the different theological parties, as they are at this moment existing in Protestant Germany. The sources from which the information here given has been drawn, consist partly of some of the periodical literature of that country, and partly of intercourse with German theologians, (chiefly students,) in one of their now most celebrated universities.

There are, then, in the main, three directions in which the theological world of Germany is moving, and which stand so related to each other as to form two extremes and a middle point between them. My object will simply be, briefly to designate these, and point out at the same time the most important shades which are found under each.

The one of these extremes is the so called Rationalistic Theology; the object of which is to develope the religious truths which appear to be discoverable by means of philosophy, chiefly by an appeal to the facts of human reason and consciousness. It only acknowledges in theology, as valid, those facts which can be arrived at by logical inference, although its supporters are quite willing to use revelation as a means in order to facilitate the prosecution of their work, and regard the apostles as co-operators with themselves in their attempts to unfold the scroll in which the maxims of truth are to be found. This Rationalism, however, presents itself under three different forms. The first is that which was chiefly occasioned by, and which rests upon the basis of, the Kantian philosophy. This is usually called the Vulgar Rationalism, (Rationalismus Vulgaris,) at once to distinguish it from the

newer schools, and likewise to point out the fact, that while they are chiefly found among certain parts of the learned world, IT, on the contrary, has spread itself to a considerable extent among the people at large. There are, in fact, probably few among the Kantian theologians, who thoroughly understand the philosophical principles upon which their system rests. The majority of them, indeed, are not philosophers at all, but have only received their theological education in the Kantian school, and from professors who supported its principles; so that their creed, although consisting of Rationalistic results, is obtained, as far as they are concerned, purely from tradition, and by no means, as is professedly the case, philosophically arrived at.

The position which this species of Rationalism takes in reference to the truths of revelation, is, as nearly as possible, the following. The religion of reason, they say, which we possess, and which has been arrived at by the unerring principles of a sound philosophy, is the pure and true religion. Christ, when on earth, taught the pure and true religion to his disciples; consequently, the doctrine which he delivered to them must have had this our religion of reason for its contents, and every thing which has been transmitted to us, either through the apostles or by the tradition of the church, contrary to it, is therefore an irrational disfiguring of Christianity as it came from the hands of its great and divine Founder. On this ground rests their apology for that system of interpretation which is intended to wrest the sense of the word of God into harmony with the standard of truth which they have already set up in their own minds. This Rationalism will evidently have two classes of opponents; the more modern Rationalistic schools on the one hand, and the theologians, who take the Bible alone as their standard, on the other. The consequence is, that their position is rendered any thing but clear and easy to maintain. When assailed by the latter with the weapons of an accurate exegesis, they take refuge and intrench themselves in their philosophy; when, on the other hand, assailed by the former, through the medium of a still more searching philosophy than their own, they appeal to the pure doctrine of Christ. Sometimes, however, it will occur, that they are engaged in a contest with both at once; in this case, driven from both their strongholds, they can only take up the position, that their assertions rest upon immediate evidence; that the whole question is as clear as day to an unprejudiced mind; that sound reason teaches it to every rational being; exclamations which are very easily made, but which ever take for granted that those who make them are reason's especial favourites, and have the whole truth laid bare to their inspection, without any trouble of thinking or research. Nay, this very party, who have vaunted the omnipotence of reason in the eyes of the world, when pressed closely by the arguments of a more sweeping philosophy, will appeal to the authority of past times, to the blood that was shed at the