Independents and Baptists, Quakers and Methodists, Presbyterians and Moravians, Roman Catholics and Protestants, "Chartered Libertines," profane swearers, sabbath-breakers, racers, dancers, hunters, duellists, and sceptics of various grades, from the philosophical admirer and editor of Hobbes, down to the coarse and irreverent editor of the Northern Star. Such men may make very good statesmen, and when met in parliament may be quite competent to discuss and settle any question of a purely commercial or political character; but who would ever undertake to defend the position that there is either piety, wisdom, consistency, or common sense, in entrusting to such a motley group the settlement of any question of religious faith or church order? And yet such are the men who can, at any day they like, discuss the doctrines which you shall be required to believe, and the practices you shall be required to observe. Such are the legislators who have the power to alter, add to, or take from the laws of your church, and then to enforce their own enactments by pains and penalties, the prison and the sword. Do you say that you have the Bench of Bishops to take care of the Church in the House of Lords? I reply, 1. Their right to sit there is a purely political right, granted to them by Act of Parliament, and by Act of Parliament could at any time be taken away. 2. According to your theory of Episcopacy, they are entitled to the entire government of the church. As spiritual peers they have no more power in making church laws than the same number of lay peers, or the same number of Commoners, who may happen to be Socinians or Roman Catholics. 3. Laws af fecting your church have passed in spite of the opposition of the Bishops; and laws which they would like to have passed have been objected to and defeated, and no doubt will be defeated again. It is these men of all creeds and no creeds-the Parliament, and not the Bishops-who, after all, make your laws, and are your real governors. Do you reply, There are some men of enlightened minds and Christian character in the House of Commons? Most firmly do I believe it, and most readily do I grant it. But it is no violation of Christian charity to affirm that such men form but a small minority in the House. If they were to attempt to settle any church question by a direct appeal to the sole authority of the New Testament, every one knows that they would be laughed at for their pains. And should they ever introduce a motion that could only be urged by considerations drawn from the guilt and danger of the soul without an interest in Christ, it would fare no better now than when introduced by Mr. Wilberforce, but would be sure to be treated with "much profane ribaldry." But if such men formed an overwhelming majority in the House, the evil in principle would still remain; you still allow to Christ's enemies, however small the minority, the right and power of interfering with the government of Christ's church. And if there should be no minority of the kind-if every member of the present House of Commons was as good a Christian as Mr. Wilberforce himself-even then the thing would be wrong, and they would be quite out of their province in making laws for your church: for, 1. It is as statesmen, and not as theologians, that they have been sent to parliament. 2. Their being all Christians would be purely accidental; the next election might return a majority of ungodly men. 3. It is not religiously right that I, a Nonconformist elector, should have as much power in choosing the men who shall make laws for your church as any one of you who is a conscientious Churchman. 4. It is not religiously right that any member of parliament who is a Nonconformist, however enlightened and pious he may be, should be allowed to interfere with the government of a church to which he does not belong. We should not permit an Episcopalian, be he rich or poor, to interfere with the government of our The Counsel Chamber. WE doubt not that among our readers there are not a few Young Men whose hearts are more or less under the influence of a desire to be engaged in the good work of a Christian Bishop, either in the Home vineyard, or in Foreign Lands; indeed, we have had frequent inquiries from such, as to the marks of a Divine call, and the qualifications which may be considered necessary to authorize the entertainment of a hope that it may not be presumption for them to offer themselves for this high vocation. We have, therefore, pleasure in introducing them to-day to one who, above most men of his time, from his wisdom, piety, observation, and experience, is entitled to answer these solemn inquiries. for the hope and faith of every kind that are in him. dition on longevity. He tells us, that during a recent year in that State, the That he be of good report among following results took place : those with whom he sojourns. That he have an overflowing love to God, and to the souls of men, and that he be willing to forego any temporal comfort, and undergo any temporal hardship, so that he may glorify the one and edify the other. That he be not given to doubtful disputations, nor unnecessarily occupied about the circumstantials of religion. That he be of a hale constitution of body, having the use of all his members and faculties, and able to endure hardship and fatigue, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. That he be endued with a meek, and patient, and humble spirit, ready to bear and forbear, and to be kind to all. THE MARRIED AND SINGLE. THE Secretary of the State of Massachusetts recently published a series of statistical facts, illustrating the influence of the domestic and wedded con Married males Unmarried males 14,366 64,750 Average age-56, 65.100. Widowers 21,490 Average age-75, 94-100. Unmarried females 22,490 Average age-42, 11.100. Married females 61,246 Poetry. FORGIVE AND FORGET. "I FORGIVE the offence, but I cannot forget;" Remember'd offences must canker the heart, At least I confess, when my heart is made scre, The only true method my peace to secure, I must seek to forget, or I cannot forgive, For it whispers, If just, the resentment should live, And I turn with a resolute will from the thought, Till my spirit hath found the tranquillity sought, And I pray that the seal of oblivion thus set, LIFE'S SUNNY SPOTS. It yet some spots of sunshine hath, Unchanged, whate'er his lot, Is sure a sunny spot. The Wife who half our burden bears, Whose ready hand wipes off our tears, Unheeded all her own; Who treasures every kindly word, And carols blithely as a bird,- L. F. M. The Child who lifts, at morn and eve, There's yet upon life's weary road One spot of brighter glow, W. L The Fragment Basket. BEAUTY OF MINOR MORALS. THE smaller parts of an edifice may be less important than its foundation, but they are not less necessary, and they are even much more beautiful. Look at the splendid edifice in course of construction for the British Legislature, and fix your eye on its sculptured niches and its fretted pinnacles. Why, without all these it would be substantially fit for the purpose for which it is designed; but they are its ornaments, its finish, and to rob it of them would be to despoil it of its beauty. So it is with the minor morals of the Christian character, and with the minor portions Nor of Christian truth. They are like the PREVENTIVES OF CHOLERA. THE public should be apprised of the paramount necessity for a more general use of chloride of lime in all sick rooms. It not only acts as a safeguard in contagious disorders, but entirely destroys the unhealthiness of the atmosphere which is more or less attendant upon invalid apartments. It is well known that cholera, typhus fever, &c., are always more severe and fatal when the atmosphere is impure, and many disorders are made contagious by a want of attention to this important fact. Most virulent diseases, which threatened to spread through whole districts, have been checked in their bud by the free use of this simple agent. About half a pound of the powdered chloride may be put in two gallons of water, to stand in the sick room, and a small quantity of the solution occasionally sprinkled about. Drains, cesspools, &c., the nuclei of most diseases, might, by having chloride thrown into them, be rendered perfectly harmless. THE BIBLE. "A BIBLE," says John Berridge, "is the precious store-house and the Magna Charta of a Christian. There he reads of his heavenly Father's love, and of his dying Saviour's legacies; there he sees a map of his travels through the wilderness, and a landscape, too, of Canaan. And when he climbs on Pisgah's top, and views the promised land, his heart begins to burn, delighted with the blessed prospect, and amazed at the rich and free salvation. But a mere professor, though a decent one, looks on the Bible as a dull book, and peruseth it with such indifference as you would read the title-deeds belonging to another man's estate." TRUTH alwaysjustifies itselfin events, but all compromises of it issue in proofs of our folly. The Children's Gallery. MEMOIR OF FREDERIC MORRIS. FREDERIC MORRIS, a scholar in the Independent Sunday-school, Pendleton, Manchester, died on the 19th of July, 1848, being only eight years and four months old, Little Freddy, at a very early age, gave indications that the spirit enshrined in his frail tabernacle was intelligent and amiable; and as his mind developed itself, it betrayed an originality of thought, and a delicacy of feeling, not generally observable in children. In everything that related to spiritual and eternal subjects he appeared to take a solemn delight. He preferred the sabbath to any other day, the chapel and school to all other places, and the Bible to all other books: he cared little for other books; he scarcely liked them as well as he ought: but all that belonged to the soul and eternity attracted his attention, and engaged his heart. On a present being made to him, he remarked to the donor, "No doubt you think you have given me a great deal; but there is One who has given more. God gave his Son." Freddy was a lover of truth: never would he utter a falsehood, even to conceal his faults; for he had faults, chiefly resulting from the liveliness of his feelings; but he was sincere and guileless. He never would get into bed without offering up his prayer, which generally consisted of the Lord's Prayer, or, "Lord, look upon a little child," &c. Since his death, a little memorandum-book has been found, which contains a passage from one of the Psalms, recently written by the dear child: "Truly my soul waiteth upon God; from him cometh my salvation." It was signed underneatlı, "Freddy's verse." Most touching to his parents' hearts was this discovery! The beloved one was evidently looking to God, and from God has his salvation come. An impression was on his mind that he should not long be an inhabitant of this world. Last new-year's day, on |