bounty of the British and Foreign Bible Society, to supply every destitute family in London with a loan New Testament and Psalter. This noble project originated with the City Mission, and by a combination of holy energy derived from all quarters, it is likely to be completed before the present month terminates. Let us unite in prayer that God will deign to accompany with his blessing all the diversified instrumentality of his people, and that London may yet be rescued from the degradation and the doom of vice, ungodliness, and infidelity. LINES ON A BIRTH DAY. The following was written by Mr. William Hone on a blank leaf of his pocket Bible. On a particular occasion he displayed the leaf, and presented it to a gentleman we know, who has correctly copied its contents for publication. Besides its intrinsic interest, we feel it due to Mr. Hone to publish a correct version, as amongst the copies in circulation there are many discrepancies, and one has been printed in "The Churchman," which extends to six verses, four of which were never written by Mr. Hone. "Lines written before breakfast, 3rd June, 1834, the anniversary of my "The proudest heart that ever beat "Hath been subdued in me; "The wildest will that ever rose, "To scorn Thy cause, and aid Thy foes, "Is quell'd, my God, by Thee. "Thy will, and not my will be done; "Confessing Thee, the mighty Word, "I hail Thee Christ, my God, my Lord, A SACRED SONG. W. HONE." "The summer is gone, the harvest is past."-Jer. viii. 20. Hertford. The summer's gone! the harvest past! Life is a transient day! A morn; a noon; then evening comes; Yes, summer's gone! Life is a flow'r Yes, man's a flow'r! But tho' that flow'r Yet from the dust 'twill spring again, P. W. REVIEW. By Essays and Correspondence, chiefly on Scriptural Subjects. the late John Walker, some time a Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and a Clergyman in the Establishment. Collected and prepared for the press, by William Burton. London: 1838. 2 Vols. 8vo. pp. 590, 669. WHEN the subject of oaths was recently before the legislature, the term "Separatists" frequently occurred in the course of the debates, in a connexion which, at first view, seemed to intimate, that thereby were meant Dissenters generally; for they regard themselves, and are regarded by others, as Separatists from the Church of England. On the enactment, however, of a law which extended to Separatists and Moravians the same indulgence that had long been possessed by the people called Quakers, of substituting a solemn affirmation for the imprecatory engagement of an oath, it was found that no reference whatever was had to those commonly known by the name of Dissenters; but that it was restricted in its provisions to the very smallest fraction of persons separating from all religious establishments; viz. those associated in fellowship with the late Mr. Walker, of Dublin, and hence known by the name of Walkerites. It appears, that among other points of passive obedience and nonresistance tenaciously held by that body, the refusal to take any oath occupies a prominent place-in consequence of which, they have been subjected to many trying losses and penalties, and have exposed themselves to still more severe sufferings, rather than violate their conscience. Some time back, no fewer than six of their number, holding situations of trust and profit in the Bank of Ireland, and some of them with large families dependent on them for support, were at once dismissed by the Directors, on account of their refusal to take the oath annually administered in that establishment. One of these persons had been for thirty-four years a clerk in the Bank; had grown grey in the faithful discharge of his duties; and at the age of fourscore, was dismissed from his employment, without even any superannuated allowance. Some have forfeited half-pay, and others have been subject to fines and imprisonment. For some time they quietly acted out their principle of non-resistance; but at length resolved to petition the legislature, which they continued to do annually, till at length a bill was passed in their favour. As many of our readers may not be acquainted with their views on matters of religion, we shall here furnish a brief statement of them, drawn from the volumes before us. They believe that in the primitive age all the Christians residing in any place, were connected together in the closest brotherhood; that as their connexion was solely grounded on the one apostolic gospel, so it was altogether regulated by the precepts delivered to them by the N. S. VOL. III. G apostles; that every departure of professing Christians from this course, must have originated in a withdrawment of their allegiance to the King of Zion, and a turning away of their ear from the apostolic word; that the authority of this word is unchangeable; and that it cannot be affected by the lapse of ages, by the varying customs of different nations, or by the enactments of earthly legislators. They hold that the only true God is made known to men exclusively in the gospel of his Son Jesus Christ, and is known only to those who believe the divine testimony there revealed; that all other knowledge, religion or piety, is idolatry-the object of belief and worship being a mere figment of the worshipper's brain; that the distinguishing glory of the gospel is its exhibition of the exercise of the perfection of righteousness, and the perfection of mercy in the closest combination and the fullest harmony in the justification of the ungodly through the atonement; that all solicitude or effort of the sinner to do any thing, or to get any thing for the purpose of making his peace with God, originates in the ungodliness of his mind, arrogating to himself that work which the Son of God declared upon the cross to be finished; that forgiveness, acceptance, and eternal life, come to sinners-the guiltiest-as such, and are assured to believers; that salvation comes not only unsought, but in opposition to all the ignorance and rebelliousness of the sinner; and that the only good and sure hope towards God is immediately derived from the belief of the gospel testimony, and not from the view of any difference of a favourable nature supposed to exist between believers and the worst of their fellow sinners. Faith they define to be nothing else but the belief of the things declared to all in the Scriptures; and repentance, the new mind which that belief produces. Both of these they consider as the work solely of God in his people; and they maintain that it is by his revealed word the Spirit of God works in them both to will and to do: insisting upon it, that God is the sole author and agent of every thing that is good, and that every thing which comes from the sinner himself, either before his conversion or after it, is essentially evil. They hold that the subjects of Christ's kingdom upon earth shall be, to the end of the world, a despised and suffering people, and that this will be the case just in proportion as they manifest the genuine character of his disciples. They abhor the pretensions of the clergy of all denominations, considering them to be the official ringleaders of the anti-christian corruptions which, under the name of Christianity, have overspread the countries of Europe. They regard each other as all one in Christ, and on a perfect equality in the concerns of his kingdom. They consider it to be equally unlawful for any to lay by a store of this world's goods for the future wants of himself or his family, and to withhold what he possesses from the present necessities of his poor brethren. They meet on the first day of the week to show forth the death of Christ: joining together in praise and prayer, reading the Scriptures, exhorting and admonishing one another as brethren, according to their several gifts and ability, contributing to the necessities of the poor, and testifying their brotherly affection by the kiss of charity. They also attend to discipline in the same open assembly. They hold that the office of elders or overseers is scriptural, but that it consists, not in the administration of ordinances, which any brother may do before a church has elders, but in watchful superintendence, and thus being a pattern to the rest of the members. They renounce all connexion of whatever description with every other body of professors; and consider none as worshippers in their places of meeting who are not united to them; hence the appellation SEPARATISTS. They originated with a few in Dublin, about the year 1803, most of them connected with the Irish Church Establishment; and owe much of their organization and subsequent course to the influence of John Walker, at that time Fellow of Trinity College, and distinguished by his great proficiency in classical and other literary attainments. Their most numerous church meets in Stafford Street in that city, but consists only of about one hundred and thirty individuals. They have ten or twelve smaller churches in different country parts of Ireland, and one in London, assembling in Portsmouth Street, Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. According to their views, however, even two or three disciples uniting in any spot, constitute the church of Christ in that place. Upwards of twelve clergymen have left the Estáblishment and joined them. We are sorry that in two volumes of nearly 1250 pages, we have no biographical notice of Mr. Walker, as there may have been certain phenomena, mental or otherwise, in his previous history, to exert a powerful influence on the modification of his opinions, and the extraordinary position which he held among his brethren. His religious notoriety commenced with the publication of an Expostulatory Address to the Members of the Methodist Society in Ireland, and a Series of Letters to Alexander Knox, Esq., who had replied to the Remarks, and undertaken the defence of the Methodists. In these publications, in which there is much clear and vivid exhibition of the grand doctrines of the gospel, and an able detection of a variety of erroneous notions obtaining both among the Methodists and other sections of christian professors, there is, at the same time, a pretty copious infusion of that spirit and those doctrinal ingredients which afterwards came to characterize the sect which he founded. Just about this time, while yet a clergyman of the Establishment, he preached in many of the dissenting pulpits, both in Ireland and Scotland, and produced a considerable impression by the novelty of his appearance, the lucidness of his discourses, and the peculiar energy which marked their delivery. In November, 1804, he published an Address to Believers, to which he appended an account of the late change in his sentiments relative to the lawfulness of his connexion with the Established Church; his Letter to the Provost of Dublin College occasioned his expulsion, and the consequent loss of his Fellowship, &c. In his preface to which, he informs his readers that he had renounced the clerical character, and had, therefore, no longer any pretensions to the usual appellation of Reverend-a title which he nevertheless had no scruple in giving to others, as he considered it only synonymous with that of Parson. In the Appendix to this pamphlet, here re-published, Vol I. pp. 175-213, are some very candid statements respecting the reasons which induced him for a time to continue in the Irish church after he had attained to clear views of the spiritual nature of Christ's kingdom-reasons which we believe are more or less in operation in the minds of many clergymen who employ them, as Mr. W. did, to quiet their consciences, and reconcile their sense of duty with their external circumstances. He considered his position in it merely as a situation into which he had been providentially led, and that nothing intrinsically unlawful had been required from him as the terms of his admission into it; while his main object was to do the will of God, and declare his name. He did not view himself as having been invested with any kind of divine authority, but merely as having received a political authority from men appointed by the state to exercise certain religious acts, according to certain forms prescribed by the laws of the country. He valued the situation in which he was placed for the opportunities and facilities which it afforded him of declaring the gospel of Christ to multitudes who would not otherwise be likely to hear it, as well as for the explicit testimony borne to the fundamental principles of that gospel in many of the standard formularies of the Establishment. The views, on the other hand, which he entertained of such Dissenters as he knew, furnished him with no inducement to join the body to which they belonged. Still he could not but anticipate that he should, sooner or later, be removed, and he even cherished the anticipation; but he deprecated the idea of removing himself. As to the lawfulness of a religious establishment, per se, he employed many specious reasons, somewhat in the style adopted by Dr. Chalmers, and appears to have stood his ground pretty well with those who did not meet the fallacy of them, by denying the principle assumed in the very first step of the argument. What appears to have made his conscience specially sore, and must press with peculiar weight on every mind at all alive to the claims upon Christians to have no fellowship with unbelievers, was mixed communion. This, however, he attempted to get over by arguing that if mere professors are allowed to mix with believers in the other ordinances of worship, they may just as well be permitted to do so in this; that where that ordinance was professedly open to all who chose to partake of it, there was really no sanction given to the profession of any by their admission to it; and that none of those who received the elements at his hands, conceived that by his act he recognized them as true disciples. It may seem strange to many, but so it was, that even after Mr. W. and nine other persons had formed themselves into a distinct christian fellowship, he continued to regard it as his duty to retain his connexion with the Establishment; but after in vain attempting to wear the double yoke, he at last resigned his fellowship; but in order to make his separation the more marked, he, at the same time, renounced all connexion with the General Evangelical Society of Dublin; the Society for distributing Religious Tracts; and the Association incorporated for promoting Religion and Virtue. From that period to the time of his death, he maintained the most uncompromising hostility alike to church and dissent; or if any distinc |