and we know that God loves to see his children waiting in prayer and praise. As to not speaking so much of the Gospel to those who revile it, there is some truth in the remark; for we know that the Saviour has said, 'Cast not your pearls before swine." Certain it is that we must not be ashamed of the testimony of Jesus, and should always be ready to answer with meekness, those who ask us a reason of the hope that is in us; but if we are with people who ask us no questions, but who rather hate and revile both us and the Gospel, the more they hear of it, why should we, by speaking often of it, add fuel to the flame. Let us rather wait a more favourable season.' There is, says Solomon, a time to speak, and a time to keep silence." Discretion and reserve, as occasion may require, are in no wise inconsistent with active energy of character. The foregoing extract clearly shows how well these two qualities were blended in the character of our stirring and anxious missionary, It is enough, indeed, to justify this kind of weariness and scrupulousness in such works, that our Lord himself hath laid it down as one principle to be observed by those whom he himself first charged with the work of propagating the Gospel. They were not to give that which was holy to the dogs. They were to shake off the dust of their feet against such as would not receive them, nor hear their words. In this same spirit, too, Paul himself acted towards the Jews at Corinth, when they "opposed" his Gospel preaching, and "blasphemed." He "shook his raiment " as a token of reproach against them, and then he turned to the Gentiles;" so that it is not the unwearied activity of preaching, or teaching, or itinerating, which is alone requisite for the missionary. Forbearance, patience, and discretion are equally so; nor must there be any lack of firmness, discrimination of character, and conciliation of manner. We must now indulge in another reference to one of Neff's letters, to show how fitly he was formed for advising his people on questions which have a most intimate relationship to the prevalence of true religion among them, and which are too often the objects of derision with the more thoughtless portion of the world. He is alluding to the practice of frequent or occasional meetings for mutual edification and religious intercourse :-- "Men of all countries, and all conditions, like to meet together, whether for pleasure or advantage. Gamblers never play alonedrunkards seek the company of drunkards-libertines and lovers of gaiety associate with their fellows-wits, relators of anecdotes and adventurers, lovers of scandal, whether young or old, male or female, take pleasure in meeting with those whose habits, tastes, and conversation are similar to their own......... Why then should not Christians, the citizens of heaven, the ransomed of Jesus Christ, the heirs of the kingdom of glory, take a pleasure in meeting together in the Saviour's name, to converse on the one thing needful?.........Surely he who can be indifferent and cold to such subjects, plainly shows that the things of heaven are not to his taste, but that the world, and the things of the world, are more attractive. Besides, the disciples of Christ are bound to love each other; and how can this affection be kept up if they do not meet? or who will believe that Christians do love each other, if they take no delight in each other's company?......... Now, all this cannot be accomplished by merely meetings for the discussion of common affairs, nor yet by regularly attending all the public ordinances of religion. In the temple, you know, no one speaks but the pastor, and all that has been prescribed on the subject of Christian improvement, cannot there be put in mutual practice. Besides, in the temple, true and, nominal Christians are mixed up, and confounded together; and for the sake of the latter, the faithful pastor must sometimes, in some degree, overlook the instruction of more advanced souls.' : "In season and out of season" this devoted missionary was "instant" at his work he relaxed nothing himself, nor would he, if possible, allow his people to do so. But nevertheless there are many things to be taken into account in the erection of these re-unions, or religious associations, which Neff was so ardently anxious to accomplish. Among ourselves we have frequent evidences of the evils arising from such things, and which seem far to outweigh any benefits deducible therefrom. Religious frenzies, extravagances, absence of discipline, and disorders of even a worse kind, are amongst the prominent ill effects of them, besides the insinuation of heretical and fanatical notions into the breasts of excitable hearers, and an almost certain jealousy and suspicion against, and consequent separation from, the Church Catholic. These and others less conspicuous, perhaps, but equally injurious, are to be classed in the train of those serious objections which experience points out to us against private religious meetings. This, however, is viewing the matter in the abstract, and on general grounds. In the particular district where Neff's labours were cast-where Popery was in the ascendant, where great laxity and worldly indifference to all religious seriousness were prevalent, and where the Protestant Churches themselves were but carelessly served, and had imbibed some dangerous heresies-in this state of things something like unusual exertion, or strong measures to raise up and maintain a higher and more correct feeling might be justifiable, and especially when made subject to judicious and watchful controul. Neff was not quite the man to be led away by mere fancy or excitement; he was a missionary, not with an indiscriminate and infatuated zeal, but with "zeal according to knowledge." His re-unions, therefore, which, under other circumstances, might have wrought much serious mischief, were, under his admonitions and management, productive of a great preponderance of good among his people. Dr. Gilly indeed seems to think, that "however entitled to peculiar respect the opinions of such a man as Neff may be, yet that, in regard to these religious meetings, he departed from his usual discretion in estimating their benefits far beyond their real deserts." This observation, however, arose upon the fact, that Neff had gone so far as to say, that, "whoever, were he an angel, neglects these meetings on any pretext whatever, is not to be depended on; and can scarcely be reckoned among the flock of Christ." This, to be sure, is strong language, and may partake a little of the hyperbole, but on a subject of such immense interest as the awakening a love of God in the soul, some little allowance may be made for one who, giving all his heart and strength to such a cause, shall paint his favourite picture in high and forcible colours. Nothing is so good and profitable but it may be abased by indiscreet, and ill-judging, illdisposed people; and so it too often comes to pass, that religious associations, constituted by pious and right thinking men, and calculated to awaken many a careless heart to a sense of Christian piety and Catholic truth, are perverted into channels of error and imposture, where they might be channels of good. Na It remains now to be considered, and a few words may be sufficient for that purpose, in what light Neff may be looked upon as a missionary-and if à missionary, under what authority he acted, and how far he was officially authorized to act. ture (so to speak) made him, as we have before observed, a missionary in spirit, as well as in bodily prowess-and nature seems to have sent him out on his holy errand, for he was not despatched by any constituted body or society. He was a sort of avτoxowv in the missionary world, like those aborigenes who were said to start up from the earth without any other mechanical origin. So that whilst no Missionary Society could claim him as one of their own sons, yet any Missionary Society would have gloried in such an one. He also bestowed his labours where he had to combat with seditions, heresies, and schisms, more deeply rooted and more popularly encouraged, than is easily to be found in the same space in any civilized part of Europe. He laboured among the Papists, the Socinians, and the Infidels of Switzerland and South France, until at length he became the settled pastor of the most dreary, inaccessible, remote, and unenlightened portion of the high Alps. None but a missionary, endowed with all the patience and perseverance which should peculiarly distinguish such a character, could have ventured on such a work; and to render himself still more qualified and authorized to do so, we find him, after a few years of probation as a proposant-i. e. (with the Protestant Churches of Switzerland and France), a candidate for ordination -offering himself for that sacred consummation to certain "Independant congregations" in London, "whose ministers (as Dr. Gilly informs us) are received in the Protestant Churches of France, as duly authorized to preach the word of God, and fulfil the duties of the pastor's office!" As to the validity of such ordinations, opinions of course will differ; but while we of episcopal Church would not refuse credit to the sincerity of the opinions and impressions of certain "Independent congregations in London," we are not prepared, nor has the Church Catholic and Apostolic ever been at any time prepared to admit that any other than episcopal ordination, except under certain peculiar circumstances, can be, in a spiritual and Catholic sense, effectual, however in a temporal and sectarian sense it may be so those peculiar circumstances are, where it is not possible to obtain episcopal ordination at all, and where, of course, if Presbyterian ordination is refused, there could be no ordination of any effectual kind, or with any pretensions even to authority. This would be a case of necessity, and this was Neff's predicament: as a foreigner, and uninitiated into the Anglican Church, and unacquainted with the vernacular tongue, he was, of course, ineligible for episcopal ordination here he had no opportunity left, consistently with his own conscience, but to throw himself on that resource which might seem to come nearest to the purity and the discipline of the Reformed Episcopal Church. For the purpose which he had in view, this resource might suffice. The Protestant Churches of Switzerland and South France admitted ordinations from Presbyteries, and it was with a view to certain orderly ministrations among some of those churches, that Neff was now to prepare himself. His letters given in Miss Wyatt's translation, pages 100 and 106, on the event of his London journey, are written with extraordinary pathos, good sense, sound opinions, and simplicity of spirit. They will be read with lively interest; and while we rejoice to find that Dr. Gilly's biography of this far-famed missionary and ardent Christian is now arrived at the fifth edition, we anticipate that this volume of his letters, now given to us in an English version, and exhibiting so interesting a picture of his "inner man," will make no tardy progress to a second. 413 ART. VII.-Tales of the Village. By the Rev. HENRY Paget, M.A. London: Burns. 2. Forest of Arden. By the Rev. WILLIAM GRESLEY, M.A., Prebendary of Lichfield. London: Burns. 3. English Citizen. By the Rev. WILLIAM GRESLEY, M.A., Prebendary of Lichfield. London: Burns. THE design of these little works, which we may designate "Church Stories," is quite evident-to infuse, by means of pleasing narrative, certain principles of Church doctrine and discipline into the minds of the young people of the present day. The works themselves do not demand any serious review, but as specimens of a certain mode of argument which is exclusively adopted by many, we may take them as the starting-point for a few remarks. And, first, we must express our scruples against the mode of wrapping up arguments and principles in what is called fictitious narrative: we are not prepared to reject this mode of writing altogether; but it is clear that, in order to be useful, it must observe certain conditions of impartiality, fair and full representations, and conclusions flowing from a clear view of realities, not from the imagination or prepossessions of the writer. Without these conditions, we may have plenty of stories, written by Churchmen, about amiable Church-people and unamiable Dissenters, and, of course, on the other hand, plenty of stories written by Dissenters, about amiable Dissenters and unamiable Churchmen; but no good will result from such amusements. The first condition, therefore, of such a style of writing is, that it shall be fair and full in its representations. But, to tell the truth, our scruples are not restricted to this particular class of fictitious narrative. Though we should not like to condemn and throw aside all the stories that charmed our boyhood, yet we should like to have some better arguments to justify them against the scruples that may arise from the statement of a fact, and from the consideration of a theory. The fact is this, then we cannot quite overcome the embarassment which attends the question of a child (a great authority in such matters), who says, when you have finished your story, "but is it all true?" It is of no use trying to satisfy the child by telling him that it is essentially true, though not matterof-fact, as to the connection of the events; for the meaning of the child evidently is that it ought to be matter-of-fact—an embodiment of truth in facts which have really occurred, and he |