The Express.
London, England, 1850-11-04 00:00:00

•unL or XIICT.

There are still other topics which seem to rtquire some
' notice from me, bat I can only touch upon them very
briefly.
Toe question of establishing deterhoods of merry in ear
reformed church, le one respecting which opinion, are greatly
divided. That such Methadone may be productive, under
due regulation, of much good, cannot, I think, be doubted.
They have from time to tints been recommended to our
church for adoption, by writers whom attachment to
the principles of the Reformation cannot be doubted. They
were, in fact, originally protestant imitations. Eighty
years before the formation of Sisterhoods of Mercy in the
Church of R 4611/ by Vincent de St. Paul, the protestant
I Sisterhood of Sedan, and the ladies of Rochelle, set the
example of them meoetatioas for pious and charitable
objects.

TM question Outlaws] edmation is me whisk cs this
maim I must pais by with • deck remark. After all
the dieenstase Milk have takes *se with regard to the
Windom of the getemseat eel the drag sad dies of
the shush, I am pmeseed that 11 the tundra of the
peeple at large be skis set et the heeds et the stagy,
It will be =alai, their ewe fault. They stead on a matme
ground frost whisk If they are vigilant sad wive, it
wilt hasolly be meille be dkiedge them Bat they must
take me that the auntie whisk they saw h we
whisk Menne. the seine elithod • OM prime
llik@le
beam knowledge Ned ef itema seelet ety. Oe
I Mils tee' whisk I stated la my elemeareof
rt tidiraibm with peat Memo that gratty
eamits to a pie% seggetted b;4l /OM et the
, st~ lair alba themplime Vith the
sessat by mei= the sheeek st OM'
meets, Warm ths dines* Meth=
sad Meese et the'yeseg oft et lasiel Met s Mew a
VIM immemet, meld,
Wasted in they ere by the pelt totes
I I errgai
the mikes mass el early clip lb@ Area
° et haewledge. TM Abele el rte
V have bets mime with a kir mum or
rem love sow eimenteaml the Met teem at the
with fetlf-elebl alms in Meehan tam@
nasberbig Meet SOO eledists•thst w them
yam b seeesmaki Maim ease Beefy-
'ad ems Mime* subsehmthers. It is
to =Meth tee highly the geed Iphy
sakelthodi modem Iht
he tog
is be eakelatedset meraly by the
.. hats et the mediate antidote, Itutrr
.Are whisk they MA enesthe eyes them emend
their felimeleska sad theme's, their hatilles sad
amminteme.

omoro.
Aar+ Obi per
show trohhoh sod
dor *mho or oh

hie faith in Deese Christ as the chief corner-rtone. To
deny tee inspiration of scripture is one step towards the
Mintiest of the gospel as a revelation from GNI. Against
this fatal kersey I would earneetly ceution my younger
brethren, soloing one from which, in the present state of
the human mind-, we have much mere to leer than from the
eftreathaftete of Popery. Rationalism, as is name im-
plied!, referring everything to man. unaided reason, as
the ultimate toot of truth, fatten the pride of his nature,
whisk Is reveltedrept, the heather, though consolatory
doetriamol the Popery offoods and disgusts the
understending y 'striations, opposed alike to common
d to the plain letter of holy seriptere. The
:it:: an
aims at the templets subjugation of tits intellect
to the an:hority of the self 'instituted Vicar of Christ ;
the farmer smarts the sepremsey and lafallibity of
roams. It is manifest that We is the most likely to find I
favour with a beamed sod salami& generation, while the
former ma not his bops of general acceptance only on the I
ground of sidoydeisi
_lsassaass The true safeguard
sad prassresera tam beet actrassas is to be found in
oars Masks id sad knowledge by
mean madon, is to esdnises lion of the doctrine
of oar reformat Eh ,Inelt, as 'drawn fres the inspired Word
of God and is • ins aihmuaee to her ergot's, her liturgies,
and snide. If dims be min aside, or if, while they are I
sulemiled eels the hiss,, they are lindens:Jed and inter-
meal is a asrastassi sense, so as to explain away on one
side the fundemestal truths of Christianity, or, on the other,
the dogrustive doctrines of our church, we shall soon be
afloat cm • as of error, drifting helplessly among the shoals
and quiekseads of hammy, old and new. The chunk will no
longer be en ark of moiety • its (ministry will be a ministry
not apses, bat of assfusiaactioand what the results will be,
lean
we may heath* ems of the continental churches,
which are now reaping the tier fruits of their defeetion
from emboli, truth sad order, and of their separation of reli-
gious from seatlas "decades. And what is the lesson which
the Waal condition of our church is calculated to teach us ?
hifteced by donjons! opposite kinde—on this aide stipend.
dos and spiritual tyranny; on that aide rationalism, with
Infidelity or panthassa is its train—are we not bound to put
may from us, as far as oar duty to the truth will permit,
all dissaasSeas sad sontroversies between oeteelves ; to rally
rowed the vital truths of the Gospel; and to study, with
much ged-isquiry and union prayer, to retake our Saviour's
precept, " Have ash in pitmans, and have peace one with
another." Whatever defects we may believe to exist in the
sonnitution of our church, as viewed in connexion with the
evil polity of this country, let us devote our energies more re
whitely than we yet have done to the fulfilment of our own
individual duties, as ministers of that church, each in his
proper &pliers election ; sad we shell and, in the more rapid
growth of religion, fa the extension of the chnotti's bound t-
ries, in the daily ingathering of thole who are to be saved, and
la the moral and weal lasproallasat of the people at large,
abundant evidence of our belonging to a true church. Nay,
have we not even now seffielent evidence of this kind to
assure and encourage us 1 Can we believe that God would
bless the efforts eta false or falling church with such no-
oses as by his goodness has already merged the awakened
energise of our own ? And is not the very fact of that
awakening, viewed ft connexion with its results, in itself
a condemnation of those who desert our thumb, because
she is hindered, as they think, from delay her proper
work ? Is it too much to any that the divine Head of the
church (ft speak with all humility) seems to be acknow-
ledging the legitimacy of that branch of it which is planted
in this realm by signal mark' of his favour —not by amplify-
leg its worldly hofturs—not by enlarging its endowments,
nor by augmenting its temporal powers, nor by giving it in-
creased favour ia the sight of legislators and rulers—bat
by calling forth its spiritual energies, by reviving its
inner life, by rekindling in its members somewhat of
the church's ancient warmth of piety and charity; by
giving to both the will and the power to lengthen its
cords and strengthen its stakes, and to break torth on
the right hand and on the left? Have we not thank-
fully to aeknowledge the goodn•as of God towards the
church of this country, in permitting it to send forth,
within the fast tern years, fifteen additional bishops, to
preside over its distant and too long neglected branches,
and in blessing the labours of those devoted and self-
denying men with an almost unlooked for meseure of
soma.? This, ton, be it remembered, by the church's
inherent energy, without assistance, almost without encus•
regiment, from the state. Again, are there no indications
of the existence of a true church, faithful to her appointed
work, in the efforts which have been lately made
to brieg into her bosom, and to provide with heavenly
amendment, the multitudes of perishing sinnert, coiled
indeed by her name, and for the most part, it may be, made
her children by baptism, bet from that Moment, treated as
crengers and foreigners, ignorant of her maternal cave, sod
suffered to remain in an almost worse than heathen state
Are not the churches and schools, which are now so many
centres of light and bohemia, in regions where the powers
of diatoms long held undisputed sway, so many trophies
which the church militant has been permitted to erect over
the enemies of man's salvation ? is it not the church which
has diets lilted up her voice and told the rich and power-
ful of the duties guy owe to the poor, and of the dangers
which have arisen, and of the rein which must ensue from the
continued neglect of those duties ? Let as, dear brethren,
be duly thankful to God, for all that ha has guided and
enabled our church to effect, as the dispenser of her truth,
and be more zealous, and more united than ever, in our
endeavour to carry on the work in our respective spheres of
duty. Let us us rally, se dutiful sons, rotted our spiritual
mother, in the time of her distress or perplexity, repair the
breaches of our Sion as effectually MI 0.4 may permit us to
repair them, and parses our souls is petiolate and prayer,
till in his owe good time he shall see fit to perfect the work.

That it is possible to conduct them in accordance with pro-
tenant principles, is proved by the inatitetion of deaconesses
eitabliabed in Paris in 1841, and carried on with cleansed!,
lamming sateen under the truly paternal care end wise
direction of M. Vermeil, pastor of the Reformed Church
of Paris. In a few years a spacious house, containing one
hundred and twenty seven rooms, with large yards and
stardoms, We been purchased and fitted up, and is
filled with sufferer. of every description. Instructioa fur
the young, easuolation and gaidanee for penitents, medicine
and attendance for the sick, a lending library, tee distvibu-
tics of Bibles and tosots, all these objects are carried out, or
anperintended by the deaconesses and probationer ; and these
useful labours have been thankfully acknowledged from time
to time by peenniery gnats from the municipal authorities
of Paris. This constitution has been from the first carefully
guarded walnut the errors and Alma of the church of Rome.
It has associated together Christian women, eonstrained by
the love of Christ, and desirous of being permitted to do hie
work more effectually than could be doue by their detached
and belated efforts. Bat it has held out to them to in-
dasements nor facilities to desert the duties laid upon
them by their domestic relations. There has been no vow of
celibacy nor engagement binding their consciences ; no vio-
lation of the liberty wherewith Christ oath made us free.
The sheracter of the establishment Is not that of a monastic
somattaity, but of a peat Christian family. If any sister-
hood MI be formed in this coantry, sneering to this
deserlpdon I should hell their institution ea calculated to
intense the eillcieney of oar church, end to streaetben it
spied the mathinaffess of BMUS. But I strongly dem-
esne the establishment of any religious or charitable so-
ciety of females which shall have almost every pecu-
liarity of a nunnery but the nerve. I fear this is the
ewe with some which have been alreedy fumed. I
have reason to believe that in more that one imitate*
yowag bosses have been encouraged, on permitted, te
eared themselves as Mama of Mercy at Charity stalest
the earnest with of their nearest relative, and to neglect
me eleerly prescribed 'duty for the sake of undertaking
anetier, whirls la eartaialy not of positive obligation. I
Amid think it a sulleisat condemnation of an incites-
Ilea to be ebb to slow, that in any an. it its oondue-
ton had Invited, or permitted • daughter to become an in-
seam, is spite of the sunset remeweMease a a father, or a
widowed mother. From Awls elosetisas the training huff.
tat:isms for mines whisk hem been established is Fitzroy-
square are free; and I do sot mesa te derby that tam exten-
sive establishments et the nature of that whisk 411:11 at
Paris night be kneed in stud aessodesee with the **-
dohs of one Zollsromal Churl; al Owl I Wool OP ow It,
that poor we It rtgailita to avoid the toast of tassoado
hmathatisoo shoo wean to have Imo oaarolosi Is sow ia-
i steam that have soma to oty kaewholio.