CORRESPONDENCE.

ON UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

SIR,-Surely your "Old Friend," who writes upon the above subject, confounds Universal Redemption with Universal Salvation. The "Redemption" price has been paid on Calvary "for all”— sufficient and world-embracing-as our Church Catechism and Communion Service most clearly and Scripturally testify. But "that the mercy of God will prevail over His justice in the final salvation of sinners," is quite another thing; as erroneous as the other is most true. And, if I mistake not, the doctrine of the Christian Observer, for the forty years that I have known and valued it, has seen and is the same as that of good old Jones of Creaton, in his "Fair Balance," being three essays on "Universal Redemption," "Personal and Eternal Election," and "No Decreed Reprobation."

But, alas! your "Old Friend" is too true, I fear, in saying that many of our "Evangelical preachers" so preach as to convey the impression to the hearers, (for, at all events, the hearers receive the impression,) that, somehow or other, all will come right with themselves and all at last. From such soul-destroying error we join together in saying, "Good Lord deliver us."

As I have my pen in hand, suffer me, Mr. Editor, as many of your readers may not have seen the life-like photograph, which appeared in the Record, of our dear sainted brother of Manchester, (I need not have written down the name,) they will be glad to read them, and you will not disdain to stereotype them in your valuable periodical. Truly, in common with many others, I can bear witness to a most refreshing visit of four days under my roof at our last year's Church Missionary Anniversary, which left a never-to-be-forgotten savour behind it :

"He stood erect, with half uplifted face,
Gazing towards the 'high and lofty place,'
As one that looked and listened for the word
And gesture of command: benignant grace
Lighted his countenance: then gently stirred
His head, as if inspired. Anon we heard
Soft accents. Moving eloquence apace

Gushed from his lips, with hallowed wisdom charged;
Zeal for the love and truth of Christ enlarged

His stalwart frame, and vehemently averred

The firm devotion of a man of God;

And such impetuous energy conferred,

As if, surcharged from some electric rod,

He stamped the fires of heaven upon the ground he trode.

:

"T. HARTLEY."

Yours very sincerely,

G. L. 66 Old Friend" was used

We have no doubt the expression of an inadvertently; but the conclusion of the sentence explained his meaning. Yet there is a Scriptural use of the term redemption, in the sense in which he employs it; see Ephes. iv. 30-" Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemp

tion." That is, of your final salvation, not only from the wrath of God and curses of sin, but from all their evil consequences, both for time, if time shall last, and for eternity. So again, Rom. viii. 23. -ED.]

NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

Recollections of my Visit to Spain and its Prisons in the Year 1863. By Dr. A. Capadose, President of the Protestant Evangelical Society of Holland. Nisbet and Co. 1865.-This interesting little work of Dr. Capadose is a seasonable reminder to English Christians of the sufferings, for Christ's sake, of Manuel Matamoros and his fellow confessors in the dungeons of Granada and Malaga. Much sympathy was excited, two or three years ago, on their behalf; but so many and varied are the religious interests of the day, that unless a good cause is continually before the public, it soon slips out of sight and is forgotten. England, however, will not suffer the impression made of the intolerant bigotry and cruelty of Spain to be so speedily effaced. Incredible as it appears, it is no less true, that in the nineteenth century, a few Spanish Christians, of spotless moral character and conduct, were, for simply reading and circulating the Word of God, immured for three years in the damp, unwholesome prisons of Spain before sentence was passed on them, and then condemned to nine years' penal servitude! The sole concession made to the indignant public opinion of Christian Europe was the commutation of this atrocious sentence to nine years of banishment; and even this was done in an awkward, ungracious, grudging manner, to save Castilian pride from the appearance of yielding to foreign remonstrance. While these events were occupying public attention, the venerable Dr. Capadose, warmly sympathizing with the sufferers, undertook the long journey from Holland to Spain, at an age when most men think only of repose, that he might alleviate their condition and administer consolation. The narrative of what he saw is written in a fresh and lively style, and the Christian simplicity and warmth of heart of the writer enhances the interest of the reader in his subject. He first visited Malaga, and "in the spacious vaulted apartment of the gaol, stuffed full of prisoners, whose miserable squalid appearance and dirty rags, inspired the deepest compassion," saw the "young and intelligent Antonio Carrasco, the intrepid Marin, and the gentle Gonsales." next proceeded to Granada, and within the gloomy walls of the Audiencia prison was welcomed by Manuel Matamoros and his companions in suffering, Alhama and Trigo. A captivity so protracted was telling fearfully on the health of Matomoros. "He was distressingly thin, and suffered much from pain in the chest and side. His face was worn. Captivity and suffering had given his voice somewhat of a hollow tone, and his hands were mere skin and bone, and icy cold." From Granada Capadose proceeded to Madrid to join the deputation from various nations to the Queen of Spain. The favour of an audience was denied them, but the object of their visit to Madrid

He

was partially accomplished by the commutation of the prisoners' sentence to banishment, and they had at least the satisfaction of feeling, that before they turned their backs upon Spain the captives were released.

It will interest our readers to know, that since his banishment from Spain, Don Matamoros has found a refuge, with a few others, among the generous and hospitable Christians of the Free Church of the Canton de Vaud. He resides at Lausanne, studying at the College there, so far as his shattered health permits, for the ministry. The day may yet come when even Spain shall be tolerant, and Spanish evangelists be permitted to resume their labours. "May God in His mercy hasten the time." Meanwhile we heartily join in the earnest hope expressed by the translator of Dr. Capadose's book, "that the examples of these eminent servants of God in foreign lands-the 'beloved physician,' in his declining years, mindful of his Saviour's words, 'In prison, and ye came unto me,' and the faithful disciples ready to follow their Divine Master into prison and to death, may stir up our hearts to more earnest prayer and active sympathy in the cause for which they suffered, and still labour."

Sunday-School Lessons on the Collects. By the Rev. Rowley Hill, M.A. London: J. Nisbet & Co.-We welcome this work of Mr. Hill's as one likely to be of general and, we trust, abiding usefulness. There are few things more to be deplored in the education of the young than the crude, undigested instruction which they too often receive in Sunday-schools. Every one teaches almost as a rule his or her own particular views on the most important subjects, and thus too often you have in the same school teachings side by side of the most opposite character. This is bad; but perhaps it is even worse than this, that so little knowledge is imparted, from the simple fact that the wish to be useful in such a department is not always seconded by the power to be so; and those whose goodness of heart would lead them to desire to teach the things of God have not always the clearness of head and fixedness of opinion which are necessary to make them capable of doing so. Some of our clergy feel this so strongly, that they take care to have a class of teachers to be taught before they go to be teachers themselves, and Saturday after Saturday prepare them for the really great and sacred work in which they are to be engaged on the Lord's day. Thus they secure unity to a large extent, and also make certain of knowledge to a considerable amount being conveyed through these most useful channels.

What some clergy do for themselves, Mr. Hill has well and kindly done for many of his less careful and laborious brethren. He has given the results of a year's teaching in his own schools, for the benefit of others; and he has thus marked out for the coming year what will, we have no doubt, be as generally used in many Sunday-schools throughout the land, as the chart or guide of their instruction to their children. He follows the course of the Church's year. He takes her exquisite collects as the special theme for each Sunday as it comes round: in the morning he explains the meaning of the Collect, in the afternoon he illustrates it from Scripture, bringing out practical lessons drawn from the lives or conduct of those recorded in God's Word. Thus he makes the teaching of our

Church forcible and clear, by his constant reference to the Bible, as the great storehouse whence to draw all that men need to know of faith and practice. The idea is a good one, and well carried out, and we have no doubt that, while to some it may supply only the subject matter found in each page-in itself sufficiently full,-to others it will be what such a book ought to be, suggestive of a great deal more of thought than it directly conveys.

We hope to see it soon in a new edition; and we would suggest to its author a few manifest improvements. There are several solemn occasions which the Church rightly makes prominent, which he should make prominent too. The Circumcision, the Epiphany, the Passion, the Ascension of our Blessed Lord, all demand distinctive notice and teaching. Then Christmas Day and Good Friday should not come in at the end, like bank holidays, which they are in a common almanack. They should fill their own proper places, which are quite clear, in the order of the Sundays of the year. Even though Sunday-schools be not held on these days, the book is useful for families as well as schools, and might be used by many children, and even grown persons, independent altogether of special Sundayschool instruction. Indeed, we would suggest to Mr. Hill to take every Collect in the Prayer-book as the theme of like instruction, and so make his book a far more perfect expositor of truth as taught by the Church of which he is a minister, than even in its present useful and effective form it can be.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

We would enter upon another year with thanksgiving and with praise. When we met our readers at the beginning of last year, many evils seemed to compass us about: not one of them was permitted to fall upon us. Many trials we have had; but except the

death of the late Premier, not one of them was such as could have been foreseen. We entered upon the year still dreading the results of the cotton famine; but we did not foresee the rinderpest, the grievous murrain which has hitherto foiled all our boasted science and medical skill, both at home and on the continent-as humbling a lesson as science ever learned. The American civil war has passed away, and with it are dispersed those dark clouds which seemed to gather from the Western hemisphere. More peaceable at home, America is disposed to be less quarrelsome abroad. The Southern Confederacy collapsed and fell, when she seemed upon the verge of triumph. were little aware in England of the desolation which war had wrought in her one hope remained, to arm her slaves, and with them to prolong the contest; but she did not dare to attempt the grand experiment. But with her fall, that for which patriots and philanthropists had toiled so long and so hopelessly was accomplished, and American slavery ceased to exist throughout the United States. But though, as the new year begins, we have no fears of foreign invasion or transatlantic war, we have a rebellion of our own in Ireland, in intention

so fierce and murderous, that it unites under one head the crimes of assassination and of high treason, but in effect so contemptible, that the public began to fear that its leaders might escape with no worse a punishment than that of universal contempt and pity. This, however, has not been the case. The chief of the conspiracy escaped from prison, and fled to France, not without the connivance of his keepers. Four others have been unanimously convicted, and sentenced to penal servitude, one for ten years, two for twenty, and a fourth, who had been convicted before on a charge of sedition, but suffered to go free on condition that he should never again engage in seditious plots, has met with his just reward in a sentence of penal servitude for the remainder of his life.

In Jamaica, we have a still more formidable rebellion upon our hands. The blacks, who number four hundred thousand, have matured a plot, we are told, for seizing the island, massacring every white man and child in it, reserving the women as slaves. But the plot was discovered, and the massacres of the most atrocious kind began prematurely early in November. The Governor-General seemed paralyzed for a day or two, or was not convinced of the reality of the danger. Then the work of justice began, and stern and dreadful has been its course; for it was committed to the hands of the military. The accounts greatly differ. At first it was two hundred who had suffered at the hand of justice; for justice it was, if an armed insurrection, as alleged, had begun its reign of terror. In the face of a blood-thirsty mob, severity is the greatest mercy. Yet, will it be believed in after years, that up to the period at which we write, public meetings are constantly held under the sanction of our mayors and magistrates, in which the plot is extenuated, the assassinations denied, and vengeance demanded upon the Governor-General and the commanders of the soldiery; and that some of our newspapers of the largest circulation join in the same unjust and senseless clamour. There was a noble exception, a few days since, in Liverpool, when Canon M'Neile, John Cropper, Esq., a faithful as well as a lineal representative of the old abolitionists, with many others, all deprecated a premature decision, and asked only that Government would cause a full inquiry to be instituted. This Earl Russell had already resolved upon. Instructions had been sent to Sir Henry Storks, Governor of Malta, to hold himself prepared to proceed immediately to Jamaica, and assume the office of Governor-General for a time, in order that Governor Eyre might be set at liberty to appear as witness in the inquiry which is to be immediately instituted into the whole affair. He arrived in England within a few days of the summons, and is already on his way to Jamaica. Meanwhile, Brigadier-General Nelson, the commander of our troops in Jamaica, appeared in England by the last mail, totally unaware of the clamour raised against him, and not a little, we suspect, to the confusion of those who had already prejudged his conduct, and consigned him to Haman's gallows. We know of nothing in the conduct of our countrymen more worthy of severe reprobation than their violence on the Jamaica treason, and we feel that we have a right to speak; for when we were young, we helped to fight the battle of the negro under such leaders as Brougham and Wilberforce.