The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-06 00:00:00

_NEV:SPAPER

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sought to exaggerate the priestly ' '
rally been men who have not honou i t
amount of their own abilities or the brilliance of
their own success. There are no Taylors, nor Til-
lotsons, nor Lowths, nor Usshers, amongst the
modern list of auricular," confessors" and parish
" martyrs."
If there is any power of appreciation of the signs
of the times amongst the extreme end anti-Protes-
tant cla.ss, they must see that the whole spirit of
the people is .fightin n• against them, and that the
one opinion of the entire Reformed Churches con-
demns the practices by which they have led, in the
Church of England, some of their weak brethren to
err. There are, however, a few, and a very few,
from whom the spirit of judgment would setm to
have departed, and who fight for a principle with-
out the least reference to its advantage to the cause
of religion or of the Church ; forgetting the greatest
maxim of the Apostle that "all things arc lawful,but
all things are not expedient." We should be sorry
to think that at any time in England, or in Chris-
tendom) any part of the people should be precluded
from the advantage of " confessing their sins one to
another," if the one had injured the other and wished
to give proof of regret in the slight reparation of
acknowledgment, or if it was a comfort to a bur-
dened conscience to be relieved from its own
agonies by the admission of sins to a clergyman or a
neighbour. But to permit, on this ground, exa-
mination and cross-examination, the licentiousness
of Liguori and the filth of Dens—that suggestions
of crime should be put broadly, demanding long and .
dangerous explanation, and eyery sinuosity of vice
should be traced turn by turn—and all that for the
only purpose of saying, " Repent of that and I'll
forgive you"—this would be to adopt the doctrine
of the confessional of Rome, and to abandon the
notion of free agency in confessing voluntarily,
which is the element of all the confession which
the Reformed Churches allow.

It would be well, however, that too violent
courses should not be recommended, merely on the
ground that men differ in doctrine and practice on
this matter. There is a large body in tlie church
much more tolerant t 9 snt nd eirqp. tCsuspi-
cious dissent than to that to on orft Clitifch
itself which, we regret to say, 'entertais extremes
opinions. Never was the advice of the Pagan lible
more needful than just aow—media tutissiuzus ibis !
There is a long way between the doctrines, and
often the worth of the Churchman who holds the
highest notions of his power,and who may be nick-
named by those who comprehend neither of the
phrases " Tractarian" and " Puseyite," and the dis-
seminator of the "cold-hearted heresy" of Socinian-
ism. It is dangerous to assume that all men who
go somewhat too far are actually conspiring with.
the general enemy, or that men otherwise blame-
less are imbued with some deep desire to betray
the Church. At all events it is to be hoped that.
however much needed are lectures like those of
Dr. Cumming against the practice of the Confes-
sional, the need for them will decay before the in-
fluence of true attachment to the Protestant faith,
and the legitimate operation of the machinery of
the Church herself.—Morning Herald.

NEW ARRANGEMENT AS REGARDS
THE LETTER'CARRIERS.

The following new system of arrangements, as
regards remuneration to the letter carriers or post-
men, has just been agreed to by the authorities of
the General Post-office :

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