one main obstacle in the way of raising new churches, is removed. A parish may immediately be annexed to every such new church, and an endowment may be obtained. By these two provisos a vast assistance is rendered. Nothing more is now required, than the mere first cost of £3000 or £5000 to build the church, and a parish, with an endowment for the minister, follows of course. Is not this a great encouragement to begin the work? Reflect, a society with an income of only £20,000 a-year, (the present income of the Church Pastoral Aid Society,) might raise four handsome London churches, or six or eight village ones, in each year, and might take the best security which is obtainable, that the gospel may continue to be preached in them. Is not such a course as this worth entering on? Will not churchmen, who value the preaching of the gospel, embrace the present opportunity to set on foot a work, the value and importance of which nothing on this earth can represent or estimate?

We do not, in fact, see how the supporters of Evangelical principles in the Church can much longer abstain from acting in this matter. The two recent circumstances of which we have spoken, -the fostering aid granted by Sir Robert Peel's recent Act; and the lapse of the Incorporated Society into Tractarianism, seem to supply reasons which before were wanting, and which ought to decide the question. Previously, it might have been merely a matter of regret, that the Society often refused to do good. It is now too clear, that it is ready to employ its funds, and that to a considerable extent, in doing positive evil.

A MEMOIR OF HILMAR ERNST RAUSCHENBUSCH, late Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Elberfeld, Prussia. By the late WILHELM LEIPOLDT, M.A. Translated from the German by ROBERT FRANCIS WALKER, M.A. Curate of Purleigh, Essex. London: Seeleys. 1843.

HILMAR RAUSCHENBUSCH, whose life is here brought before the English public, was a pious and devoted Lutheran clergyman, who closed a long course of pastoral labour in April 1815, at the age of seventy years. The work is a valuable accession to our religious biographies. It is rich in every part with practical wisdom, and a tone of deep and spiritual feeling pervades the whole.

Besides the general benefit of tracing the course of holy men in times near our own, there are further advantages in the present state of the Church, which make narratives like the one before us, doubly useful. They remind us that true religion is a great reality, the life of God in the soul of man. The enemy of souls would fain deceive the Church afresh, and make it content with the externals of ritual worship. At such a time, every practical example, where faith is seen in its genuine work, and the love of Christ and his people in its blessed and quiet fruits, shines forth with a double beauty, and serves for a beacon against delusion.

Another temptation that now assails us, is the spirit, truly sectarian, however it may claim the title of Catholic, which limits the grace of God exclusively to the episcopal communion. We are told gravely, and ex cathedrá, that "without a bishop there can can be no Church, no, not so much as in name." Now there are few remedies for this deplorable blindness so effectual, as an intimate knowledge of those holy and devoted men who have adorned other communions within the body of Christ. Facts are stubborn things; and one Memoir, like this of Rauschenbusch, is enough to scatter to the winds, a thousand such foolish sayings. The free Spirit of God does not ask the leave of the synod of Bethehem, to learn within what limits He shall be permitted to blow. No, wherever he listeth, and in all the various parts of the Lord's vineyard, He delights to bestow His gracious influences of love. It is refreshing to the simple Christian, who may have been perplexed by specious sophisms from which his heart recoils, to turn to such Memoirs as these, wherein the Lord himself bears witness to his own presence in our sister Protestant Churches, by the manifest fruits of His grace. Nay, surely even the most strenuous advocates of the succession, if they have one spark of Christian

discernment, must be content to relax the stiffness of their rigid theory, in the view of such examples as this Memoir supplies. They ought to adopt cheerfully Balaam's unwilling confession; and instead of pronouncing excommunication from the visible Church on their fellow Christians for real or fancied defects of form, should rather say, "He hath given commandment to bless, yea, and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it."

Here indeed lies one of the worst dangers of that formalism which threatens now to flood the Church. It makes its disciples look with a jaundiced eye on all spiritual excellence out of their own pale. The sin of such a temper cannot be small in the sight of God. It is in truth a direct false witness borne against the Holy Spirit, where He gives testimony to His own presence and grace, by the most precious tokens of His love.

Where this bigotry has spread its infection, biographies such as the present are of course distasteful. They give no help to build up the beloved idol. Nothing is found in them about lectures and faldstools, and tables of prothesis, and wax-tapers, and all the countless relics from the buried corpse of medieval superstition, which are to perform such wonders in healing the diseases of the church. The life, the power, and the simplicity of the gospel are set before us, without the ecclesiastical furniture which might render this "light bread" more palatable to the sickly taste. But the same reasons which make such biographies odious to those who are covetous of forms and rituals, will make them acceptable to the devout and simple Christian. It is delightful to rise from the clouds of superstition, and the strife of debate, to breathe the atmosphere of holiness, and to commune with those who have already joined "the general assembly and church of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven."

The present volume, though it records no events of striking or romantic interest, is rich in all the simple elements of practical truth and holiness. Rauschenbusch was a devoted servant of God, and both at Buende, where he laboured seventeen years, and at Elberfeld, where he was pastor twenty-five years, a remarkable blessing seemed to have attended his ministry. Spiritual in his affections, laborious in his pastoral duties, and with a character happily blended of gravity and tenderness, he seems to have been eminently a son of consolation to the people of his charge.

A single extract, descriptive of the closing hours of his life, is all that we shall think it necessary to give; trusting that many of our readers will possess themselves of this interesting memoir.

Fourteen days before his decease, he prepared himself for it very impor tantly and remarkably. A dear friend of Jesus in his congregation, who was

also one of his own most intimate friends, had earnestly prayed to the Lord not to permit her to survive her beloved minister and teacher, whose place she considered no mortal could supply to her. Her petition was answered; she went home before him; it would have fallen to his lot to preach her funeral sermon; but he was so weak, that at the hour appointed he was unable to do it. Many had enjoyed the hope of hearing him once more, and were grieved when he did not appear in the pulpit. This, and the affection that had bound him to the happy deceased, caused him to send a notice to his friends that he would not suffer himself to be deprived of the enjoyment of giving her funeral address, but would deliver it on the following Sunday. This was on the 28th of May, and that address was his last in the sacred building. He took for his text,- The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea I have a goodly heritage; and he spoke of the happy spiritual condition of believers with immediate reference to their blessed end in this life, and their blessed perfection in another! He drew a lively representation of the many mansions in our heavenly Father's house, in the realms of light, from the deep intuition of a heart wherein Jesus had glorified himself. In conclusion, he summoned the funeral company to fill up the vacant place which had been left by the departed member of the Church of God, that the faithful might not fail from the earth! He probably had a presentiment that the great conclusion in the chief station of his labours was just at hand, that now his commission to this church was fulfilled, and that the Lord was now speaking to him, as once to Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers.' (Deut. xxxi. 16.) It seemed also to his congregation, as if he who was now speaking to them about heavenly things, was already numbered with the saints who had gone to glory, as if they were hearing words from the upper world. "His departure was drawing nearer and nearer, yet the welfare of his church was still continually occupying him. His people were nearest to his heart, and members of his family often found him in the attitude of prayer, with his hands lifted up to heaven, and saying, 'Lord Jesus! help thou my congregation! Save thou my people!' It was only a man, who like himself, had eminently lived, taught, and laboured for the people of his charge, that could now, in the evening of life, feel in all its force, that a distinguishing day of grace had been vouchsafed to them.

"In the last week but one of his life, he still paid visits to the houses of all his more intimate friends. It was on both sides a taking leave, without being called such; and one which sealed the covenant of love to him in all hearts; it left behind him a deep impression, made by many a blessed word that he dropped.

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Affecting and edifying was his whole manner and expression, in the last few days of his life. The more every thing concentrated itself in his closing scene, the more clearly did it appear that he himself sought what he had preached to others, namely, that he might have the Son of God, and life eternal in Him. We find that even from his earlier years he had registered in his diary his requests to the Lord, that he might be enabled to glorify God by his death, and in that diary may still be read his earnest supplications that his faith might be clear and bright at his last hour; and that his courage might abide stedfast in the Lord. And now this appeared actually to be the case. His spirit lived continually more and more in the higher elements of peace, and his life upon earth appeared before him in its simply great importance, as a preparation for, and passage unto, the kingdom of light. He could rejoice, on looking back, in the grace he had received, which had not been bestowed on him in vain; in its bright tranquillity lay the past behind him; grace was also now his only thing and his all; and from its inexhaustible fountain he drank in daily, amidst increasing bodily sufferings, the purest refreshment. Never did we notice any overshadowing dimness of faith, or find him troubled with obscure views of his relationship to his Redeemer. As in the days of his active life he had received grace and applied DECEMBER, 1843.

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it with no ordinary faithfulness, in the purification of his heart by a living faith in Christ; so now, to him that had, was given, and that abundantly; his faith abode unintermittingly in the clearest but yet most humble assurance, of his salvation in Christ, of the certain bliss which awaited him, through his Saviour, and of the most joyful prospects of eternal glory. All that he had ever suffered was presented to his enlightened view as tending to the one great object, namely, that through all this the purpose of his Lord might be wholly attained concerning him. Thus in one of his last morning hours, after a long night of suffering, he said to his friends around him,' If we wish not only rightly to know and seek our high calling for eternity, but also to be well-grounded and established in it; we must learn especially to look upon sufferings in the right light, and thankfully to regard them not only as trials, but also much more as means of our purification. They are given for the purpose of training up the new and inward man by a slow and gradual process, that we may be more and more advanced in sanctification.' He then spoke of the great importance of making a right use of afflictions; and said, that to be in stillness before God, is the first, and often the only thing which a sufferer is able to do: nevertheless that even this is graciously regarded by Him, and that He himself directs us to the same in his holy word. He cited the words in James i. 12.-' Blessed is the man that endureth temptation!' His expression during this conversation was all holy solemnity and devotion; and there was a lofty brightness shed over his countenance.

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More needful than ever,' said he on another occasion, when suffering from great weariness, is it to us now to have faith in God's providence; in Jesus Christ's love: in the certain assurance of our high calling, and of our election to eternal life.'

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Happy is he who has continual free access to our heavenly Father, and who under severe sufferings can say to Him, 'My Redeemer! My Redeemer!' But how foolish then are all who are seeking a paradise here in

this world! I have not found it here!'

"The last week of his life was now arrived; it was also his week of official duty; and God had granted him all along to be able to do some official duty or other at home. He had prayed the Lord that he might be doing something useful to the end of his life, and he now felt a wish stronger and stronger than ever, to work as long as life should last. Thus he solemnized one more marriage on the last Sunday of his life, and gave to the new-married couple an impressive address. Moreover on the Monday following, he wrote a letter of condolence to a respectable person in civil authority; and he wrote it because he felt himself too weak to administer consolation by word of mouth. His writing-desk was always open, and his spirit was stirred up again at once, whenever the suffering body allowed him a moment's ease and freedom. In all this, his eye was continually directed to the Saviour; and he often said, 'Children, I pray you hold it fast; it is free unmerited grace alone, that helps us through! In the last days of his life his sufferings increased very much, yet we did not anticipate his death as so near, because he never took to his bed; but continually walked out of one room into another, to ease his feelings of oppression on the chest. Oh, how happy am I,' he often said, ‘that I have a gracious God; a reconciled Father in heaven! How would things be, if under such sufferings as these I had now for the first time to begin to think of turning to God! A violent pain in the lower part of the chest increased so much during the last day that he felt his end drawing near. No medical remedies, no affectionate attentions, could any longer prolong this precious life. He himself spoke decidedly upon this subject, when the last medicine was brought to him; yet, in the evening, with his accustomed strength of mind, he requested his son the physician to go and take some rest. The medicine gave him yet some little relief; he felt that it benefited him; so, after the first hour of the night, he rose of his own accord; walked up and down in his room; and then laid him composedly on the bed; while he