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ciety at large. But it is well when what legislation does for the fulfilment of its object tends not to the impediment, but rather, we apprehend, to the furtherance, of those greater and higher objects which are in the contemplation of those whose desires are chiefly set on the immortal well-being of man.

'On the basis of these general views, I have two remarks to offer regarding the Government scheme of education.

'1. I should not require a certificate of satisfaction with the religious progress of the scholars from the managers of the schools, in order to their receiving the Government aid. Such a certificate from Unitarians or Catholics implies the direct sanction or countenance by Government to their respective creeds, and the responsibility, not of allowing, but, more than this, of requiring, that these shall be taught to the children who attend. A bare allowance is but a general toleration; but a requirement involves in it all the mischief, and, I would add, the guilt, of an indiscriminate endowment for truth and error.

2. I would suffer parents or natural guardians to select what parts of the education they wanted for their. children. I would not force arithmetic upon them, if all they wanted was writing and reading; and as little would I force the Catechism, or any part of the religious instruction that was given in the school if all they wanted was a secular education. That the managers in the Church of England schools shall have the power to impose their Catechism upon the children of Dissenters, and, still more, to compel their attendance on Church, I regard as among the worst parts of the scheme.

The above observations, it will be seen, meet any questions which might be put in regard to the applica

bility of the scheme to Scotland, or in regard to the use of the Douay version in Roman Catholic schools.

I cannot conclude without expressing my despair of any great or general good being effected in the way of Christianizing our population, but through the medium of a Government themselves Christian, and endowing the true religion, which I hold to be their imperative duty, not because it is the religion of the many, but because it is true.

'The scheme on which I have now ventured to offer these few observations I should like to be adopted, not because it is absolutely the best, but only the best in existing circumstances.

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The endowment of the Catholic religion by the State I should deprecate, as being ruinous to the country in all its interests. Still, I do not look for the general Christianity of the people, but through the medium of the Christianity of their rulers. This is a lesson taught historically in Scripture by what we read there of the influence which the personal character of the Jewish monarchs had on the moral and religious state of their subjects,-it is taught experimentally by the impotence, now fully established, of the Voluntary principle, and, last, and most decisive of all, it is taught prophetically in the book of Revelation, when told that then will the kingdoms of the earth,—(Basileiai, or governing powers)-become the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ; or the Governments of the earth become Christian Governments.

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(Signed)

THOMAS CHALMERS.'

[We are induced to insert this paper chiefly by the great value of this last page,—as being the very latest writing of that great man.] EDIT.

COMING AND GOING.

PERHAPS there is no stronger proof of the power which custom, and a certain habit of thought, exercise over the human mind, than the prevalency of the opinion that, on one particular subject, these two words are synonymous. In point of fact, no two terms can be more opposite in their signification; nevertheless, the Coming of Christ from heaven to earth, and the Going of the departing spirit of the believer from earth to heaven, are spoken of as one and the same event!-O strange perversion of terms; O subtle device of Satan, thus to rob the great object of the Church's hope of its peculiar and distinctive associations of glory and blessedness, by amalgamating it in idea with the fulfilment of the curse pronounced in Eden! True, the sting of death is taken away by Christ; true, it is far better to depart and be with Christ than to remain in the flesh, subject to sorrow, temptation, conflict, liable to the withdrawal of God's countenance, and at all times enjoying but a dim and distant view of that face, which, to the believer, is better than aught beside. But, then, death is still the penalty of sin, and a part of the curse; it is, at best, but a gloomy valley, a river of deep waters; so that St. Paul was led earnestly to desire rather to be clothed upon, than to be unclothed.

Nowhere in Scripture do we read of a continual invisible Coming of the Lord Jesus to the bedside of every

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dying believer, beyond that presence by the Spirit which He mercifully vouchsafes at all times to every individual member of his Church militant, and in a more especial manner at the hour of death. On the contrary, we read that Stephen saw the Lord Jesus (not coming to him) but "standing at the right hand of God." St. Paul exclaims, "The time of my departure is at hand." In the parable, when the beggar died, he was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom. Solomon tells us, that "the spirit returns to God who gave it ;" and Moses, that the decree goes forth, “Come again, ye children of men." Death is a stroke to be submitted to; it is attended with pain and separation, and is followed by all the humiliating circumstances of the grave. Far different is the second Coming of the Divine Redeemer. This is an event to be greatly desired; it is accompanied with instant deliverance from every sorrow, and immediate re-union with departed friends, and is succeeded by eternal glory.

Why, then, let me ask, do so many Christians fall into this strange, unreasonable, unscriptural error. Dear friends, just apply your conduct to every-day life. Imagine a case:-A. tells B. that he is soon going to live with his friend C. in London; B. goes his way, and tells D. that C. is coming from London to A. What will be thought of D. when the real case is known? Will he not be set down as either the wilful or the careless propagator of a falsehood? Will it avail him to say, that he meant the one thing, when he said the other? or, that he thought it a matter of indifference which party made the move, so long as the two friends met? O, my dear Christian friends, if you wish that your language should agree with common sense and scriptural truth, leave off this mode of speech.

But the hour is near at hand-and we perhaps may live to see the day-when these two events, the return of the Lord, and the departure of the saint, though they will not become synonymous, yet will synchronize. "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we, which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air." Then will be fulfilled the promise of the Saviour, "If I go away, I will come again and receive you unto myself."

O what a meeting will this be! Is it, can it be so nearly the same thing as death, that the one may be mentioned for the other, and the one be fulfilled in the other? Death; that enemy from whose approach the soul, even when renewed by Divine grace, involuntarily shrinks ;—death! that narrow gateway by which the soul, unseen and alone, passes into the invisible world; -death! that seal which stamps the body the victim of decay. Ah! lower not, degrade not, the glorious Advent; waiting for which, the whole creation groans, by such an association, such an intermingling. The Advent will be no hidden process; for, "Behold! he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him." The Advent will be no season of solitude, for the innumerable multitude of the Church of the first-born shall meet together; the whole body of the despised" saints," once scorned and trampled upon by the world, shall be manifested to the assembled universe as the " God." Then, instead of the body turning to corruption, that which has long mouldered into dust shall be raised in incorruption, and that which is still warm with life shall undergo a change, and be transformed into the

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