rule is acted on, even by those who profess to believe in the prevalence of importunate prayer? How soon do Christians begin to suspect that their prayers are not heard, because not immediately answered! How quickly are they discouraged, inclined to give up, and to conclude that it is useless to reiterate petitions! And thus, probably, they lose more than can be computed. They may almost have reached the point at which the blessing would be granted; and there, unhappily, they stop, and so lose the blessing simply through want of a little more perseverance. O, how eloquently do the priests of Baal reprove all this infidelity as to the efficacy of prayer, and all this want of importunity! The suspicion never seems to have crossed the minds of these priests that, if Baal were a god, he could not be expected to alter his purposes in consequence of their supplications; or that, because many prayers had been fruitless, it must be vain to offer more. The silence of their deity appears to have been with them nothing but a reason for greater importunity they were all the more earnest, because they had obtained as yet no answer. And thus do they seem to have held fast a great principle which may have travelled down to them from the earliest day, the principle that the divine unchangeableness is not an argument against, but for the possible utility of prayer, and that the having long prayed apparently without success should only furnish motive to the "praying without ceasing." Be ashamed, then, servants of the one true God, if, with all the advantages of revelation, revelation which is most explicit in asserting the duty and profitableness of importunate prayer, you are sooner wearied, sooner tempted to think it to no purpose to offer petitions, than the ministers of an idol whom repulse only served to encourage. And, if ever you feel inclined to grow remiss in the great work of entreaty, and to hearken to the favourite suggestions of Satan, who would draw you away from the throne of grace, as knowing that, if he can prevail on you to be languid in prayer, he is almost sure of easy conquest, then turn not only to the examples of saints who, through assiduous petitioning, have orought down immense blessing on others and themselves: turn, also, to such a scene as that presented by our text: take a lesson n perseverance from the slaves of superstition; for Baal's priests called upon Baal from morning even until noon, aye, and, when mid-day was past, prophesied until the time of the evening sacrifice. And now, will you say that these priests of Baal have not delivered a most instructive homily; a homily upon zeal, upon courage, upon perseverance? They have gone down from the pulpit; and we once more resume our accustomed place; but never has the minister of Christ preached more emphatically, with more of warning and more of rebuke, than these servants of an idol. We almost fear to weaken the effect of their sermon by adding any thing of our own. And yet, for a moment, must we require you to bring the supremacy of your God to the test to which these idolators were ready to submit that of Baal: "The God that answereth by fire, let him be God." There are those amongst you who have another god than Jehovah. Money, is it not the god which some of you worship? The world, with its pleasures, are there not many of you who make this your deity? Reason, are there none of you who bow to it as sufficient to instruct and direct them? But can your god answer by fire? Where is the flame, the mighty flame, which can melt down an obdurate nature, or consume the wood and stubble of carnal devices? Is this furnished by any of those religious systems which men carve out for themselves, and prefer to the simple but humiliating gospel of Christ, because allowing them greater licence and offering them more indulgence? My brethren, it is a great criterion to which to bring our religion has the God whom we serve ever answered by fire? It is the promise, the characteristic of the dispensation, beneath which we live: "Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire." And I am yet a stranger to this fiery baptism, and Deity cannot have spoken to me in flame, if there have not gone on within me any melting and purifying process, as though the refiner had been there, purging out the dross and burning up the stubble. There will be this process, wheresoever there is genuine conversion; and I am to conclude that I am yet practically a stranger to the gospel of Christ, if no signs of such a process can be discovered in myself. There is much to need the action of fire: the hard heart, the debased powers, the adulterated affections, the cherished idols-all these require the application of fire, to soften or to purge or to consume. And our God is a God that answereth by fire. He will answer by nothing but fire. If you will not have evil habits burnt out of you, evil desires scorched and shrivelled up, God will not have you for his worshippers. It is by fire that he answers; and those, who will not be living sacrifices here, he reserves to be as fuel hereafter for the flame of his righteous indignation. Sooner or later he answers by fire, whatever the call which ascends to his throne. one substance, power, and eternity; the Father, the "Thou, one Lord, grant that, giving thanks we may things; through whom all things are One; through whom is eternity" (Clement Alex.). -- The cry of the cities of the plain went up, and God at length answered by fire; so that Son, and the Holy Ghost" (Art. of Religioni.). 66 Man, who was created and formed, was made the burning showers descended, and Sodom after the image and likeness of the uncreated God; and Gomorrah perished through that strange the Father approving and commanding; the Son rain. The cry of this creation has been long effecting and creating; and the Holy Ghost nourishgoing up a creation overrun with wicked-ing and increasing....God's Word and Wisdom, the Son and the Spirit, are always present with God; by ness, and with all that can provoke a holy whom and with whom he freely and spontaneously God-and he will yet answer by fire: "The made all things; to whom also he speaks, saying, heavens and the earth which are now, by the Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness'" (Irenæus). same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition praise, and praising we may give thanks, to the only of ungodly men." Every unrighteous man One, Father and Son, to the Instructor and Teacher, is calling to God, calling to him by his pre-O Holy Ghost, in all things one; in whom are all ference of the temporal to the eternal, calling to him by his impenitence, calling to him by his scorn of mercies, calling to him by his indulgence of lust; and, O, if there be a lake that burneth with fire, into which God will finally cast all his enemies, will it not be by fire that the call shall be finally answered? And with a better and more acceptable voice is every true servant of the Saviour addressing himself to God; but still the same answer is given, an answer by fire. The communications of the Spirit consume daily more and more of what is yet corrupt in his nature, and light up within him a more intense flame of zeal and of love. Thus, the answer is by fire; and, if it were in a chariot of fire and by horses of fire that the prophet departed from this earth, the answer may again be by fire when God shall interpose on behalf of his elect, who have cried to him day and night, and carry them away to be for ever with himself. You remember what St. Paul says: "Our God is a consuming fire." In one way or another he must make good that character upon every one of us: think of that. You have your choice as to time and as to place; but a fire, a consuming fire, he is; and a fire, a consuming fire, he must prove himself to all. Submit to him now; and he will be to you the fire of the refiner, fitting the metal to take his own impress: resist him now; and he must be to you the fire of the avenger, doing all but consume, and mysteriously making indestructible that on which it shall perpetually feed. SABBATH MEDITATIONS. No. XLVII. MAY 18.-TRINITY SUNDAY. Morning Lessons: Gen. i.; Matt. iii. Evening Lessons: Gen. xviii.; 1 John v. "There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one."-1 JOHN v. 7. Meditation.-There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker and Preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there be three Persons, of Prayer. To thee, most merciful Father, do I lift up my voice; for thou hearest, when we ask according to thy will; to thee, who didst call me given me a name and a better being, by the sufinto being by thy mighty power, and hast since ferings of thine only-begotten Son, even the hope of regeneration and eternal life through him. O Father, pour down upon me and increase in me thy manifold gifts of grace, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and of ghostly strength, the spirit of knowledge and true with the spirit of thy holy fear. godliness; and endue me, good Lord, especially Work in me, I beseech thee, to will and to do of thy good pleasure; and keep and strengthen me, that I may grow daily from grace to grace, and bring forth fruits meet for repentance, unto joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Hear me, O Father, for Jesus' sake; and turn not away thy face from my humble petition. O, blessed Lord, the fulfiller and giver of all righteousness, the redeemer of them that are in captivity, my strong hope, my deliverer, my strength, and my salvation, be thy wondrous love the praise of every creature of thy hand in heaven above and in the earth below; for great art thou, and merciful, and canst not worthily be worshipped and adored. O thou Life of life, Light of light, very God of very God, in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth, shed abroad the dew of thy heavenly grace in my heart, baptize me with thy good Spirit, and let his purifying fire refine the dross of my unclean and polluted soul. Thou knowest mine infirmities: my nakedness, and my barrenness of all spiritual riches, are not hidden from thine all-seeing eye. Have mercy, have mercy upon me, dear Saviour. Turn thou me unto thy God and my God, and so shall I be turned. O do thou heal and close up my wounds; say unto my soul, "Be thou clean!" Be pitiful unto me, gracious Redeemer: pardon and blot out all my offences: though they be as scarlet, let them be white as snow. Help thou mine unbelief. Give me to be born of thee, that I may keep myself unspotted from the world, and overcome it; yea, give me the victory over my sinful flesh and the snare of the wicked one, even by faith in thee: O give me thyself, in whom only is life, that I may have life, and be snatched of thee from that death which liveth for ever. And, O Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier and the Comforter, I humbly pray thee, water my soul you our impressions on hearing it first at Alexandria; but here, in Cairo, it is infinitely more striking. On some occasions, when the wind is favourable, we can hear perhaps a hundred voices, in solemn, and indeed harmonious, concert. Here the mueddins, raised creatures to worship heaven's God; and, O, as their between earth and heaven, call on their fellowvoices are borne on the night-wind, let the silent prayer of every Christian, who hears them, ascend to a throne of grace for mercy on their behalf. They are with thy gracious and fruitful dew. Thy blessed Spirit did brood over the dark chaos of waters, and replenish them with life and beauty: even so do thou arise upon my soul with healing in thy wings; disperse thou its thick darkness; and let there be light, thy heavenly light, henceforth upon it and around it and within it. Purify my affections with the fire of thy love; O shed abroad in my heart the love of Christ; fulfil me with all joy and peace in believing; and make me sted-more especially objects of pity, because they have fast, immovable, alway abounding in the work of the Lord, and walking worthy of the vocation whereunto I am called. O thou holy One, the power of the Most High, have mercy upon me; lead me, I pray thee, into all truth; and sanctify me in body, soul and spirit, that I may know and live in the truth as it is in Jesus; that so, by the truth being made free, I enter into his eternal glory, into the mansions not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Grant this, O holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, one Father, one Son, and one Holy Ghost, who liveth and reigneth in the unity of power, majesty, and dominion, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. S. K. C. Poetry. THE POOR. (For the Church of England Magazine.) O, WHEREFORE with the rich and great Will ye alone abide, And turn from the unfortunate With cold, repelling pride? Though wealth and pomp and state bewitch, The poor are greater than the rich God is the poor man's friend. The cup already running o'er Ye pour your blessings in: Of poor and needy men, Yet pleads for them the Lord of all- To visit your delighted home The rich man ye constrain: MAHALATH. the light of the gospel in their land. But how is Miscellaneous. RAMADAN*.-The great among the Moslems in general turn night into day during Ramadan; therefore they are seldom seen in the streets. Most of them sleep from daybreak until the afternoon; while others break their fast in private. I do not think that this is done by the lower orders; and no one can hear the cry of joy which rings and echoes through the city at sunset, when, in token that the fasting is over, for at least some hours, a cannon is discharged from the citadel, without rejoicing with the people that another day of Ramadan has passed. Portman Street: and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers But no sound is so imposing as the night-call to prayer from the numerous minarets. I mentioned to From Mrs. Poole's "Englishwoman in Egypt." London Published for the Proprietors by EDWARDS and HUGHES, 12, Ave Maria Lane, St. Paul's; J. BURNS, 17, in Town and Country. PRINTED BY JOSEPH ROGERSON, 24, NORFOLK-STREET, STRAND, LONDON. WESTWOOD PARK, WORCESTERSHIRE. THE restoration of the royal family, at the dissolution of the Commonwealth, used to be celebrated with feelings of devout gratitude by the whole church and nation, as commemorative of the interposition of the good providence of God. It is now a mere state holiday, seldom, except when it falls on a Sunday, thought of in a religious point of view by the great mass of the community; and it is by not a few maintained that it is little less than blasphemy to return thanks to the Almighty for placing on the throne a licentious monarch, notorious for his career of the grossest vice, and whose character and example were the sources of monstrous evils. But it ought to be borne in mind that practically, as far as we are concerned, the character of the monarch is not the point in question. The Almighty, "whose ways are not as man's ways," frequently acts by in VOL. XVIII. struments apparently the least qualified for the purpose to be accomplished. The blessing for which we are to be grateful is a kingdom instead of a commonwealth; an established episcopal church being snatched from the hands of its plunderers, and restored to its legitimate position. To the loyal subject, therefore, as well as to the devoted churchman, it ought and will be a day of thanksgiving. Passages doubtless there are in the appointed services which may not be quite suitable to all tastes, but which need, snrely, not offend an enlightened conscience. The manifold persecutions to which the clergy were exposed during the Commonwealth were neither few in degree, nor insignificant in point of cruelty; a fact too much apt to be forgotten. It is delightful to reflect, however, that many of them found a kind welcome and a comfortable refuge in the bosoms of loyalist families of distinction, where they were invariably treated BB CHURCH OF ENGLAND MAGAZINE. with the utmost respect, and regarded with the highest esteem. Westwood Park, in Worcestershire, the seat of sir John Pakington, bart., was one of these hospitable mansions. There many of the suffering clergy found an asylum-Morley, Gunning, Fell, and more particularly Dr. Henry Hammond (see his Life, Church of England Magazine, Nos. 1. 275, lii. 306), who resided there for the last ten years of his life; and there, according to his own earnest prayer, he departed in peace, April 25th, A. D. 1660, just before the Restoration, and was buried in the church of Hampton Lovel, the parish church of Westwood. Lady Pakington was the daughter of Thomas lord Coventry, keeper of the great seal of England for the first sixteen years of the reign of Charles I.; a man, according to Clarendon, of great abilities and the strictest integrity, whose death, A. D. 1640, at the commencement of the long parliament, was regarded as a serious loss to the loyal party. Her husband, sir John Pakington, after having expended 40,0007. on behalf of the royal cause, and having been tried for his life, was returned as one of the members for Worcestershire in the first parliament after the Restoration. It is needless to say that sir John was a devoted churchman; after adverting to his kindness to the clergy; and when Dr. George Morley, the new bishop, came to take possession of the see," the noble and loyal gentleman" rode out to meet him, two miles from the city, till he was joined nearer Worcester by the lord-lieutenant and a number of other loyalists, of the magistracy, gentry, and clergy of the county. Lady Pakington died A. D. 1679, and was buried near the grave of her friend Hammond. A memorial, inscribed on the monument of her grandson, speaks of her as exemplary for her piety and goodness, and justly reputed the authoress of "The Whole Duty of Man." It is a confident tradition in the family, and there is a small apartment at the top of the house at Westwood, which has always been pointed out as the room in which lady Pakington, with the assistance of Dr. Hammond and bishop Fell, arranged the work referred to. Dr. Hickes, and Ballard in his "Memoirs of British Ladies," also bear testimony to the fact. The MS. is said to have been some time in the possession of Mrs. Eyre, of Rampton, a daughter of lady Pakington. It was interlined with corrections by bishop Fell. Mrs. Eyre always regarded her mother as the authoress of "The Decay of Christian Piety;" and "The Art of Contentment*" is generally admitted to have been hers also. THE TRINITY IN UNITY. BY THE REV. CHARLES KEMBLE, M.A., Minister of St. Michael's, Stockwell, Surrey. IN following up the remarks made in a former paper, we may proceed to inquire-How then is the doctrine of the Trinity deduced from holy scripture? Different minds find greater force in some arguments than in others; therefore I mention one or two which may A new edition of this work, from the preface to which these few remarks are chiefly taken, was edited by the rev. W. Pridden, M.A., vicar of Broxted, Kent. London: Burns. 1841. seem weak to some, but others will probably appreciate their force. The form of baptism is by many thought a convincing proof of the doctrine: “Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost;" as also the apostolic benediction: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen." In the Old Testament are many intimations of the doctrine, though the full revelation was reserved for the New, as in the triple form of priestly benediction, in the use of the plural form, in singular verb. In Isa. xlviii. 16, appears something the name often applied to God, conjoined with a more than an intimation of the doctrine: "Now the Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me." And who is the speaker? Evidently, from the context, a divine Person, styled in the next verse, 66 Jehovah, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel." At our blessed Lord's baptism, the three Persons of the Holy Trinity are distinctly brought before us. The Spirit is seen descending as a dove, and a voice heard saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." In Rom. viii. 9, 1 Cor. xii. 4-6, Gal. iv. 4, Eph. iv. 4-6, express mention is made of the three Persons in the Godhead. St. Peter (1,i. 2) thus speaks of the saints: "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." And, lastly, St. Jude (20, 21) writes: "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, eternal life." These are some of the principal passages in which the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost are named together. But such passages are not, to my mind, the most convincing proofs of the doctrine in question: I am content rather to rest in this, that we find the Father spoken of as God, the Son as God, and the Holy Ghost as God; that there are some things ascribed to them indiscriminately, so that what is done by one is also said to be done by the others; and also that there are actions ascribed carefully and constantly only to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost respectively. Prove the unity of God, as I think I have amply done already, rather than the divinity of the three several Persons of the Trinity, and the catholic doctrine seems at once settled in my mind, so that we neither confound the Father with the Son or the Holy Ghost, nor divide the one Godhead. The divinity of the Father is implied throughout scripture; and I am not aware that it has ever been questioned, except by the atheist and utter disbeliever. The divinity of the Son is affirmed by the apostles and himself: "I and the Father are one." And he also distinguishes himself from the Father. Turn to John viii. 16-18: " If I judge, my judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I and my Father that sent me. It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me." In evidence of the deity of the Holy Ghost, I would only refer to the case of Ananias and |