sented to communicate in those corruptions with Rome, then no love of unity could justify England in compliance with this requisition of Rome; for unity in error is not Christian unity.

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Foreseeing all the many gross and grievous abomina<tions" that the Church of Rome would practice before her "sins would reach to heaven, and come in remembrance before God," the Holy Spirit Who is the ever blessed Teacher, Guide and Comforter of the Church, was graciously pleased to provide a heavenly antidote for all the dangerous, wide spread, and long enduring evils of Popery, by dictating the apocalypse, which is an anticipated history of the church. In this divine book the Holy Spirit has pourtrayed the Church of Rome such as she has become. He has thus broken her magic spells; He has taken the wand of enchantment from her hand; He has lifted the mask from her face; and with His divine hand He has written her true characters in large letters, and has planted her title on her forehead, to be seen and read by all,—“ MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."

Thus he says, the almighty and all wise God Himself has vouchsafed to be the arbiter between Babylon and Sion; between the harlot and the bride; between Rome and the Church. And, therefore, with the apocalypse in our hands, we need not fear the Anathemas which Rome now hurls against us; they are neither so powerful nor so dreadful as the thunders of St. John, which are winged by the Spirit of God. What is it to us if the Pope declares "ye cannot be saved unless ye bow to him," when the Holy Spirit says by St. John "come out of her my people." Here then we have a divine vindication of the Church of England, and of her reformation; and our appeal is in this great question between us and Rome, to the beloved Disciple of Christ, and to God the Holy Spirit.

Some people, who are troubled with too great a share of morbid sensibility, cherish the hope that there may be a union between the Church of England and that of the seven hillocks; but as Rome now is, such a union would be in the highest degree sinful on our part, which in addition to our own short comings, would be to partake of Rome's

ins, and to receive of her plagues. It may, however, be xpected that many members of the Church of Rome may be awakened from their slumber, and throw away the strong delusion in believing a lie, "as the time of her doom draws near; and that they will be excited by divine grace, to examine their own position, and to contrast the present tenets of Rome with the doctrines of Christ and His Apostles. And it is our duty to accelerate the blessed work of their emancipation from darkness to light, and "into the glorious liberty of the children of God."

The voice of the Holy Spirit "forbids us to look for union with the Church of Rome. We cannot unite with her as she now is; and it forbids us to expect that Rome will be other than she is. It reveals the awful fact, Babylon will be Babylon to the end. It displays her ruin. It says that death, mourning, and famine, are her destiny; and that she will be burnt with fire. It shews us the smoke of her burning; and we look upon that sad spectacle from afar with such feelings of amazement and awe, as filled the heart of the Patriarch when "he looked towards Sodom and Gomorrah, and towards all the land of the plain, and lo the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace."

These things were written by St. John for our learning; but let none imagine that Rome is changed, that from having been fierce, proud and cruel, she has now become humble and gentle, from whom we have nothing to fear. This is not the language of the Holy Ghost, nor the doctrine of St. John, on the contrary, they teach us that Rome is unchanged and unchangeable. In the Apocalypse we are warned that if Rome regains her sway "she will persecute with the same fury as before. She will break forth with all the violence of suppressed rage. She will again be drunken with the blood of the saints. Let us be sure of this, and let us take heed accordingly. We have need to do so, more need perhaps than some of us suppose. The warning is FROM GOD, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear."

We know from the Apocalypse that, like Egypt, Rome will be visited with plagues; but that, like Pharaoh, she will not repent; but God forbid that Britain should be joined with Babylon. Let us not treat the Roman Babylon as if it were Sion, lest God should treat our English Sion as if it

were Babylon. There are many among us, that take pleasure in exposing and exaggerating personal defects in the rulers of the Church of England; and some there are, that speak of the Church of Rome as the Catholic Church. But let such look at the seven Churches of Asia, which by their sevenfold unity represent the universal Church made up of particular churches; and what is said to them is to be understood as addressed to every church in Christendom ; for to each is said, "Hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches" of the whole earth.

Not one of the seven churches were subject to Rome. They were all governed by St. John; and One “like the Son of Man walked in the midst of the seven candlesticks," and ordered St. John to write to the angel or bishop of each church. That is, every church in Christendom is governed by Christ; and it is instructed by Him, not through the Bishop of Rome, but through its own bishops; it is res ponsible to them, and through them to Christ.'

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The seven churches of Asia are now no more; their candlesticks have been removed; and so will the candlestick of Rome be removed very shortly. We can never be thankful enough that the Church of England imposes no sinful terms of communion; that she holds in her hands the scriptures true and entire; and that she keeps the Catholic faith and administers the sacraments fully and truly by an apostolic priesthood; but which, having their gifts in earthen vessels, are liable to human infirmity. St. John speaks so largely of Rome; because he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to foretell what she would become; and he reveals her history even to her fall. He uplifts the veil which hung before the future; he writes on her forehead the Mother of Harlots. He does this in love, that no one may be deceived by her; "that no one may regard her as the bride, since Christ condemns her as the harlot; and that none should dwell in her as Sion, since God will destroy her as Babylon."

The Church of Rome founds her claims on those very grounds which identify her with the Apocalyptic Babylon. "Hence it appears that Rome's notes of the Church are marks of the harlot; Rome's trophies of triumph are stigmas of her shame; the very claims which she makes to be Sion confirms the proof that she is Babylon."

At the present critical time, some may be in danger of being deluded by the confident language and bearing of Rome. But, says Dr. W. in conclusion, "let us remember the parallel-BABYLON... So Rome will be most infatuated when most in peril. She will exult with joy and be flushed with hope, and be elated with triumph, when the judgments of God are ready to fall upon her. Her princes and her prelates will vaunt her power, and will, as at this hour, be making new aggressions, and be putting forth new doctrines, and be entranced in a dream of security when her doom is nigh. And as the great river, the river Euphrates, -the glory and bulwark of Babylon-became a road for Cyrus and his victorious army, when he besieged and took that city, so the swelling stream of Rome's supremacy, which has now flowed on so proudly for so many centuries, and has served for her aggrandizement, will be in God's hand the means and occasion of her destruction and final desolation [Rev. xvii. 16], and so the drying up of that spiritual Euphrates will prepare "a way for the kings of the East-that is, for JESUS CHRIST and for the children of light who are His faithful soldiers and servants, and who will be admitted to share in the royal splendour of the Mighty Conqueror, the King of Glory-Who is the Dayspring from on high-the Light of the World--the Sun of Righteousness, with healing in His wings."

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May we be of that blessed company, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

We have now gone through the whole of the Rev. Canon's little book, (and given almost his own words in an abridged form), which we hope will have an extensive circulation; for it is calculated to do much good.

NATIONAL EDUCATION.

On Sunday last, the annual sermons in aid of the Sunday schools were preached in Illingworth Church. The weather, according to well-nigh established custom at these anniversaries, proved very unfavourable, the rain falling heavily until nearly 3 o'clock. Many persons from a distance who had purposed to be present were in consequence unable to attend. The Rev. W. Gillmor, the incumbent, preached in

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the afternoon, from Deut. xxxi, 13. The sermon, as previously announced, was on National Education. The rev. gentleman, in his opening remarks, stated that he availed himself of the occasion to give expression to his honest opinions on this important and interesting topic; but, in so doing, he appeared as the advocate of no party whatever,he was independent of all. He then proceeded to shew, that education in its true sense consists in the training of an immortal soul to a fitness for the ends of his being,-to live soberly, honestly, and religiously, in this world, and to attain a blissful eternity in that which is to come. He then invited the attention of his hearers to the efforts that were being made to introduce some new system of national education, which should, at the public expense, materially alter, not only the system adopted by the Church, but nearly every mode of instruction hitherto in use. He next specified all

the leading schemes which had been proposed upon the subject; and in the course of his remarks upon each of them, expressed himself as a decided advocate of the best secular, combined with a distinctive religious education. He was altogether opposed to every purely secular, general-religious or compulsory system; and was also equally adverse to any local rate or public assessment for educational purposes. He did not approve of the half-time system between work and school, as in the factories, being extended to the children of the poor throughout the kingdom; as, independently of the insuperable objection that would operate against education being rendered compulsory by act of parliament, and its total impracticability in many thinly-peopled localities, in the manufacturing districts, he regretted to say, it had far from realised the object it was framed to accomplish. It would be absurd to speak of any real permanent advantage having been effected by it among the working classes of the manufacturing districts. He would be no party to any such delusion. The persons educated by this system were not more trustworthy than the people were prior to the introduction of this enactment; they were not more sober; they were not more honest or industrious. He denied that the voluntary system, wherever and by whomsoever adopted, had failed to raise funds to enable it to cope with the growing ignorance of the land; on the contrary he boldly maintained, that it