heard that in some places this difficulty could be got over by writing, and asked if I could send a letter instead of appearing in person in the event of my getting converted, and was answered in the negative. I was certainly very desirous of going to heaven after death, but I think it was only because hell was the other alternative, for I was certainly not progressing in holiness. I was also very anxious to appear well in the sight of my friends, and wanted to join the Church,' as it was called, very much. So I determined to try and get anxious and excited in the matter; and a month or two after my instructions as to the nature of conversion, I certainly did feel more alarmed than usual as to the safety of my soul. While Mr. James was preaching about the lost in hell, from the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, it was not at all wonderful that I should be frightened at the graphic and startling way in which he described the torments of the poor wretch who called in vain for a drop of water to cool his burning tongue. I determined to see the minister at the earliest opportunity. I spoke to my mother about it. She was delighted, and gave me a note to him, and I went. He was a proud and haughty man, very stiff and formal, and his reception chilled me. He heard what I had to say, asked me a few questions, and bade me call again soon. Nothing daunted, I went again the following week. He asked me first what I thought of baptism by immersion. Knowing that was one of his cardinal doctrines, of course I replied that every other sort of baptism was not baptism at all. This evidently pleased our pastor, and he then asked me with a searching look, 'Whether I thought that I was eternally predestinated to be saved? 15

1 This question was actually put to a youth who applied for

"This was rather too much for me; still I had a vague idea, from conversations I had heard, that converted people always did think so. So I answered, 'I think it is very likely.' This evidently was not so well. It should have been expressed with more humility I found afterwards. He asked me what

passages of Scripture were most 'laid upon my mind.' I gave him four or five (they had been his texts for some Sundays past, and were all that I remembered); still he was not satisfied, and ended by telling me that he did not think I was converted, because every body who came to him in that state shed many tears. This was a great blow to my hopes, especially when he told me to wait twelve months before I thought of baptism. I left his little room without one encouraging word, and wondered why it was God had made it so hard to get converted.

"Going home, I gave up all idea of conversion for some time to come, though I said my prayers more regularly and read my Bible more assiduously. I was convinced that Mr. James held a 'boy's religion' in very small esteem, and resolved that even if I did join a Church, it should not be that over which he presided."

Now, after perusing this, we appeal to our readers: Is this theory of conversion or regeneration the New Testament teaching? Was it the teaching of the early Church? Apart from the question of deferring baptism until the candidate has undergone sufficient "experience" to satisfy his examiners-for that is confined to the sect of Baptists—this notion of conversion is the prevailing one that exists amongst all

admission to a Baptist church in London, and the answer was really given as recorded here.

Dissenters and the adherents of the Evangelical party in the Anglican Establishment, and it is worth while for our Protestant readers calmly and seriously to reflect how far it is a correct view.

CHAPTER IV.

CHOOSING A RELIGION.

Is

PROVIDED a man remains a good Protestant, and consistently eschews everything connected with popery, he may, without much fear of persecution in these liberal days, connect himself with any of the multitude of sects that in this country court his patronage. However fastidious his taste in religious matters, he can be suited with a religion as neatly as a lady with a new bonnet on Ludgate Hill. If he be transcendental and philosophic in his views, he can be a Broad Churchman or a Unitarian. Is he sensual, selfish, and coarse, he can be a Hyper-Calvinist. he ardent in his zeal for converting his neighbours, or ambitious of varying the attitude of hearer by occasionally becoming the preacher, he can be a Methodist. Is he respectable, conservative, and very proper, he can be a Low Churchman, a most certain method of escaping criticism and avoiding controversy. Who quarrels with a Low Churchman? He is like the good-natured dog nobody owns, but every one pats and says “Poor fellow to. We quarrel with High Churchmen, we denounce Ritualists, we argue with Nonconformists, we hate Papists, but your Low Churchman is of such a very neutral tint we scarce know he is of any religion at all; he keeps it to himself so nicely, he never goes

rushing off to church while other people are minding their business at home, he never pokes tracts about "Highway Robbery" or the "Els of Drunkenness " in young ladies' faces; all that he does in the way of religion is so strictly in accordance with the "Act in that case made and provided," that he treads on nobody's toes, and hurts nobody's feelings. As a rule though, if any one thinks much about religion, and he comes in a manner to make it the business of his life, the State religion becomes insufficient; the Act never provided for the man getting warm over "Common Prayer." The Privy Council evidently intended religious persons to rise no higher than "Dearly beloved brethren, the Scripture moveth us in sundry places ;" and if certain rash, ill-advised, and hot-headed individuals choose to let their devotion carry them beyond that, they violate the rubrics, and must perforce make a church for themselves contrary to the statute! So the State Church has not succeeded in keeping within her pale more than half of the population of England at the present day; the consequence is that the other half suit themselves in an endless variety of ways with a religion, and if one is not made to their hands they start another and become its first apostle.

Henry Pattison having met with a rebuff in his attempt to get baptized at Ebenezer, made up his mind to look about him for awhile, and test the claims of the other religions represented at Merlington. He had occasionally been to the parish church to hear the singing, which in spite of the anti-Puseyite opposition had of late become exceedingly ornate in style, the rest of the worship corresponding with it.

To hear the singing we said, for Henry was passionately fond of music, especially sacred music; and of

that, chanting had for him the greatest charm: an extract from his diary proves this:

66

My schoolmaster was a churchman, and we had to learn the Collect for the Sunday and say it on Monday morning. The acquaintance with the Prayer Book which this made necessary, sometimes led me to visit the parish church, not altogether with the approval of my mother; but the services of the Church of England, as interpreted by the clergy of All Saints', had a certain charm for me, that led me sometimes to slip off on the sly and indulge in what was to me a real treat—a little good chanting. They chanted all the Psalms, and my delight was to lift up my little voice with the worshippers in the grand old words of David set to worthy melody. I knew this was considered by my friends a very shocking thing to do, but I never heard any reason given against the practice; and young as I was, I never saw the Psalms in print but I must hum a chant to the words. I have been to that church often when sad, or out of temper, or melancholy, and always came away cured of my little troubles. There was a soothing influence in the beautiful building, and the pealing music and wailing melodies, and the graceful character of the worship, that never failed to make me love good things and good people more. I could understand this worship best, could enter into it heart and soul, but I never could do this at Ebenezer. I thought by-the-bye this was a sign that the parish church service was the childish affair my friends said it was, and that the incomprehensible prayers of half an hour's duration each, with the many drawling hymns and hour long sermons with many divisions, were proofs of the superior and more elevated character of Dissenting worship. I could not understand the latter,