chial clergymen, and devoted to his support the tenth of the produce of their estates, until, at length, when the whole country had embraced the religion of the Gospel, the law recognised what piety had begun, and guaranteed a fund to be levied for the maintenance of the fabrics of our churches, and a stated payment for the support of the Christian ministry.

Such, in few words, has been the history of the fixed payments for the support of religion in the Church of England, down to our own times. But now observe the consequencethe obvious consequence is, that the people of this country at present scarcely contribute anything to the support of religion. Our ancestors, indeed, contributed much; our own offerings "of our own proper good" to the service of God, are scarcely anything. In truth, with the exception of annual oblations to the minister, which are continued in but a few parishes, and in still fewer to any considerable amount, our accustomed offerings are almost nothing. No man can say that he contributes the glebe land to the support of his parochial minister, which was assigned as his portion one thousand years ago; and yet it is not less strictly true that in the payment of a rate or of tithe, or a rent-charge in lieu of tithe, he makes no offering to God; he simply pays a debt, he contributes nothing of his own. He who has hired or inherited only nine portions, can, upon no ground of justice or honesty, call the tenth his own. Nay, when we consider the very remote antiquity of the original endowment, extending beyond the title and history of almost every estate in the kingdom, it is scarcely possible that he should be able to affirm that it ever would have been his own. But in every case, if he is nominally the possessor of the whole of a certain property in house or lands, he has, in fact, inherited or hired that portion alone which remains after this stated payment has been made, that is to say, the tithepayer contributes nothing of his own toward the support of religion, unless through some extraordinary ex

penditure of his capital he happens to pay more than had been contemplated in his contract with his landlord, or than was intended by the original donors of the tithes. And so, evidently, the rate-payer pays nothing of his own, if his rent is less by the amount of the rate than it otherwise would have been, or if the rates are not increased by any unexpected and extraordinary cause, as by the erection of a new church; in this latter case, no doubt, he pays of his own, and sometimes he has been in this way unfairly burdened. Nor does the whole country contribute anything towards the support of religion through the system of tithes, except, if we may so speak, that portion, whatever it may have been, by which the produce of the soil has been diminished through any impediment opposed by that system to agricultural improvements. This loss will in future be prevented by the commutation of the tithes; but it might surely have been prevented by a measure less unjust and less improvident, less likely to create eventually a much larger deficiency than the country has yet experienced in the funds for the support of the Christian ministry. Why do I mention these things? not to complain of the formation of a system which, whatever may be its disadvantages (and these a recent law is intended to remove), has nevertheless, I apprehend, tended greatly to the permanent support of Christianity in the land. Much less would I advocate the substitution of a system of purely voluntary offerings in its stead; for such a change would leave the poorest and most destitute places without any adequate provision for God's service; and would in every place expose the Christian minister to the dangerous temptation of so preaching Christ as not to im. prove and instruct his hearers, but to please them.

But it is right and fitting that we should know the fact that we should be aware and reflect how very inconsiderable are our free-will offerings-how very little we contribute "of our own proper good" to the service of God. So may we

check the natural coldness of our hearts, and gladly embrace every opportunity which God presents to us of rendering to him a willing offering. The less we contribute towards his service in the ordinary course of things, so much the more freely and cheerfully should we bring our offerings when extraordinary occasions arise. And thus we may, and, I think we should, combine in our own Church, as in that of the Jews of old, the advantages of both systems-the advantage, namely, to the Church at large of those stated payments and legal institutions which were intended to provide, throughout the whole land, for the permanent support and universal prevalence of the Gospel; with the advantage to ourselves, and our own souls, of those opportunities for the willing offering which can alone attest our gratitude to the Giver of all good.

Say not that it is the duty of the state alone to remove a great national evil. I, indeed, say, and believe, that it is the duty of the legislature to meet this appalling necessity, and by renewed grants, and larger than before, to apply a remedy to the evil; and I believe that it is our duty to impress this obligation upon the attention of the legislature, and implore them to discharge it without delay. The spiritual deficiencies of the land are the great national calamity; and unless this is confronted manfully, it is idle, and worse than idle, to talk of our reforms, or look to our police, or the increase of knowledge, or even national education. We are building without a foundation-building upon the sand, nay, we are building upon a volcano, ready to burst forth and consume us with all our vain projects, and all our national wealth. But we may find some difficulty and some delay in bringing the resources of the state to bear upon the evil; and we ought not in any case, more especially when we consider our unhappy divisions, to look to the State alone. And the greater the difficulty, so much the greater need that we should ourselves do what we can, and

bring a large and a willing offering to the Lord.

And let us not content ourselves, as some would perhaps desire, with committing our poorer brethren to the chapel of the Dissenter. We ought, indeed, to be deeply grateful to the Dissenter for supplying some spiritual food where we had provided none but the Dissenters have not removed the evil, and are totally unable to remove it; and if they could, it is not to their spiritual ministrations that we should have recourse. Even where their doctrines are sound, there is evil in their separation. Where there is not heresy, there is schism; if at least the separation is not involuntary. But at present we are compelling thousands to an involuntary dissent, and multiplying and perpetuating our miserable divisions. None, indeed, should be compelled to attend our religious services, but none compelled to stay away; all should be permitted and enabled to attend them.

Neither let us repeat the common cry, that there are, at this time, and have been even in the most thickly peopled cities, and where the churches are the most inadequate to the population, seats unoccupiedwhat necessity then to increase the number? But do we expect that the time will ever arrive when none who should attend the public worship of Almighty God will stay at home? "When Christ cometh, shall he find faith upon the earth?" When will it be that the net shall no longer gather of every kind, the good and the bad, and the field shall no longer contain the wheat and the tares? Let us provide ample room for all, and many doubtless will stay away. They will stay away, and must give account for it; but we shall have done our duty, and delivered our own souls.

THE INFIDEL'S TEST.-In the United States of America infidelity found an active champion in the well-known Colonel Allen, who made an open profession of his disbelief in revealed religion. It appeared that a daughter of the Colonel,