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THE CHURCH AS ESTABLISHED IN THESE LANDS, EMBODIES WITHIN IT THE VERY TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL.-No. II.

BY THE REV. G. THOMAS, A. B., INCUMBENT OF THORNTON, BRADFORD, YORKSHIRE.

(For the Village Churchman.)

Or this every plain man may satisfy himself with but little trouble, for so it happens, that the Church of England not only asserts generally (which indeed she may assert), that she is to be found in the Bible, but she has drawn up a number of articles and printed them in her Prayer-book, as a summary of the doctrines which she professes to teach. We refer any candid man to those articles. We beg him to take the Bible in one hand, and the Articles and Liturgy of the Church of England in the other, and we feel assured of the result. We entreat him, after he has done so, to come into one of our churches, and to listen to the discourses of a minister of the Church, who (to make ourselves understood), we will call "a thirty-nine article man," that is, a man who preaches the avowed doctrines of his Church, and we will ask the hearer whether the preacher does not preach the very Gospel of Christ? and still further, we will ask, whether the man who feels shy of the articles is not also the man who is shy of the doctrines of grace? The fact is too notorious to be doubted, and it proves that which we

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wish to prove, that the Church of England embodies within it the very truth of the Gospel.

Not to descend to all the particular articles of our Church, we may unquestionably declare, that the preaching of the faithful minister of the Church of England is as follows:That all men must be convinced of sin, and from the deep feeling of danger and distress that follows that conviction, must obtain relief, not by the works of the law, but by faith in Christ, as the all-sufficient Saviour of man- -that looking unto Jesus, who was delivered for our offences and rose again for our justification, and confiding in his finished salvation, the chief of sinners is freely invited to find rest for his soul. That by faith in this Saviour and covenant-keeping God, the conscience is purged from dead works, to serve, the living and true God; that through grace given, guilty fear gives place to filial love, sin ceases to have dominion,, and holiness unto the Lord becomes a settled habit of mind. That henceforth the believer, persuaded that he is bought with a price, lives unto that Saviour who purchased his Church with his blood-loves his Sabbaths, loves his people, loves his cause, and seeks to promote the advancement of that cause, not only in his own soul, but in his family, in his neighbourhood, in his native land, and in the dark places of the earth, which are full of the habitations of cruelty and in all this, has but one object in view, and that object the glory of God. This is the very truth of God, and this is the truth which our beloved Church (blessed be God) proclaims in this favoured land.

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THE CHRISTIAN YEAR: A VILLAGE DIALOGUE. BY A PRESBYTER OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

(For the Village Churchman.)

"Now through her round of holy thought,

The Church our annual steps has brought."-Keble.

A FEW weeks passed away after the interesting conversation which took place between Dr. Plaintext, old Mr. Daniel, and Bill Spence, concerning the Ember-weeks; when, towards the close of November, the rector of Oakby reminded his parishioners that they had lived to spend the last Sabbath of the Christian year once more. It was "the Sunday next before Advent." And he affectionately entreated them to look back upon the year that was just finishing, and enquire

whether they had caught any holy fire" from the privileges which they had enjoyed during that time; and to look forward to the year that was coming, and consider that they could not promise themselves to live to see the end of it. And if they found, upon thus examining their hearts and lives, that they had been living in a careless and unprepared state, he warned them to "watch unto prayer;" nor to let another Advent dawn, and bear witness to their impenitence, and find them despising God's long-suffering and forbearance.

Here, again, Bill Spence felt puzzled. Whatever could the Reverend mean by the Christian year? It could not be the common year, for December hadn't begun yet. However, he would ask Mr. Daniel about this, the same as he did about the Ember-weeks. So he waited in the church after the service was over, till the rest of the congregation had gone, and till Dr. Plaintext had gone into the rectory. And when the good old clerk was finding the lessons for the afternoon, Bill came up to him to the reading-pew, aud said, "I've got a little bit of a favour to beg of you again, master Daniel, if it won't be too much trouble.'

Mr. Daniel: No, I'm sure it won't be no trouble, if it be ought as I can do for you. As long as you be so anxious about what as is right and good, I shall always be glad to do what I can for to help you.

Bill: Well, I feel that I'm a poor, ignorant sort of a fellow; and I want a deal of larning. I wanted to ask you to be so good as to tell me what the rector meant when he said, "that we had lived to see the end of another Christian year?”

Mr. Daniel: Well, I'll tell you what, he meant we had lived to see the Sunday before Advent Sunday again. But, as you come to the catechising, I'll ask the doctor to 'splain all about it, and then you'll know right.

Bill: Thank you, master Daniel, and I'll be sure to come. Now Dr. Plaintext, among other good qualities, was very particular in examining and instructing the children in their catechism for about an hour before the afternoon prayers. According to the fifty-ninth canon (or rule) of the Church, "Every parson, vicar, or curate, upon every Sunday and holyday, before evening prayer, shall for half an hour or more examine and instruct the youth and ignorant persons of his parish, in the Ten Commandments, the Articles of the Belief, and in the Lord's Prayer; and teach them the Catechism set forth in the Book of Common Prayer." In some of the parishes about Oakby, the clergymen did it after the

second lesson at evening prayer, according as it is ordered at the end of the "Catechism" in the rubric (or direction). But that was when there was no sermon in the afternoons; and as Dr. Plaintext had a sermon, he did it before the prayers began.

I need hardly say that Bill Spence was at church in good time in the afternoon. The children were all assembled in the chancel before the communion rails, and the upgrown people who chose to come stood behind, and Dr. Plaintext stood within the rails.

DR. PLAINTEXT'S LECTURE.

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"My friends (said the rector) Mr. Daniel has been telling me that he thinks some of you would like to hear me say a little about the Christian year,' as I have done sometimes before. Can you tell me, John Foster, what is the name of those Sundays that come between now and Christmas-day?"

John: Advent Sundays, Sir.

Dr.P: You are quite right. Now this word, Advent, means a coming. And they are called Advent-Sundays, because they are to prepare us for celebrating the coming of our Lord in the flesh, his being born of a pure virgin on Christmas-day. The epistles and gospels for these Sundays are chosen so as to make us think of the Saviour's "first coming to visit us in great humility," and "of his second coming to judge the world." So that the thought of our having to be judged by Christ at the end of the world, may make us careful not to let him have been born and died for us in vain. Now the "Christian year" is the Church's year; and whereabouts in the Church's year does Advent come?

"In the beginning, Sir," said an intelligent little girl, called Mary Thomson.

"Yes; and if you look in your prayer-books (continued the rector) at the beginning of the tables you will find a table called, 'proper lessons to be read at morning and evening prayer on the Sundays and other holydays throughout the year.' And there 'Sundays of Advent' come first. And then, if you look again at the end of the thanksgivings, there follow, The collects, epistles, and gospels to be used throughout the year;' and Advent comes the first there. How many Sundays in Advent are there?"

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"Four Sir," said Thomas Firth.

Dr. P: Yes, there are four. Now, you will perhaps wish to know why the Church does not begin her year in January.

This is the reason: "She does not number her days, she does not measure her seasons, so much by the motions of the sun, as by the course of her Saviour. She begins and counts on her year with Him. For He was the true Sun of Righteousness, and began now to rise upon the world. He was the day-star on high, and began to enlighten them that sat in spiritual darkness."-Wheatley.

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"Now this is one part of the Christian year. looking forward to it for four Sundays (continued Dr. Plaintext) the happy morn arrives, The nativity of our Lord, or the birth-day of Christ, commonly called Christmas day;" when we celebrate the appearance of the angels to the shepherds, bringing glad tidings of great joy to all people: the birth in Bethlehem, the city of David, of a Saviour, Christ the Lord. How many Sundays are there after Christmas? Mary Thomson: Two Sir.

Dr: Well, on the first of these Sundays we consider again our Saviour "being born of a pure virgin." And on the second Sunday we think of his "being circumcised and obedient unto the law for man ;" and we pray for ourselves to have "the true circumcision of the spirit, so that our hearts and all our members may be mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts, and we may in all things obey God's blessed will." And I consider this another part of the Church's year, from Christmas-day to the second Sunday after it. What do you find next in your prayer-books in the table for proper lessons for Sundays?

John Forster: Sundays after the Epiphany?

Dr. P: Then the Sundays after the Epiphany will be the next part of the year? Can you tell me what the Epiphany means?

John: It says, Sir, at the top of the collect, "The Epiphany or manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles."

Dr. P: When was Christ manifested to the Gentiles? Mary Thomson: When the wise men from the east were led by a star to Bethlehem, and found him laid in a manger, sir. Dr.P: Quite right. Now what we chiefly learn from Christmas-day to the Epiphany is this, that Christ was man as well as God. And what we are chiefly taught in the Sundays after the Epiphany is, that Christ was God as well as man. And so it is, that, in the gospels for those Sundays, there are some of his first miracles related to us. How many Sundays are there after the Epiphany?

Mary Thomson: There are six, Sir; but you told us they are not all used when Easter falls early.

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