Bernard Leslie

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1843 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter xxiv. Great God, by whom thc strifes of men are weighed In an impartial balance, give Thine aid To the just cause; and, oh! dnThou preside Over the mighty stream now spreading wide! So shall its waters, from the heavens supplied In copious showers, from earth by wholesome springs, Brood o'er the long parched lands with Nile-like winge. Wordsworth. recapitulatory remarks. There is at the present time an unusual ferment in the English Church; God grant that it may turn out for her eventual furtherance and purification! It may be called, in some degree, a reconsideration of principles. And yet it is not so, strictly speaking; for the debate is between men who belong to the same communion, and profess to acknowledge the same great principles, and receive the same articles and formularies. All members of the Church confess the great doctrines revealed in Scripture and summed up in the Creed. All acknowledge the duty of man to live to the glory of God, who made him. All believe that, when man lay in sin, pardon and salvation were purchased for him by the blood of Christ the Son of God, who took our nature upon Him and suffered death on the cross, so that thenceforth all who believed in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And all acknowledge the sanctifying operation of the Holy Ghost, without whom we are not able to think or do any good thing. These great truths of revelation are admitted by all, and understood, as doctrines, in the same way. The debate is on the practical method of proceeding--the way of setting to work in order to gain souls to Christ, and secure to them the benefits of Christ's precious blood-shedding, and the sanctifying influences of the Spirit, through which alone they may be enabled to glorify God....