The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-01-20 00:00:00

THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE AND THE
DISSENTERS.

We take the subjoined portion of an article from the
Record of last week. That paper has been a firm advo-
cate of the Alliance, but now professes itself at a loss

" what to say " if such attacks against the Established
Church as the following are persevered in by the Dissen-
ters, and seems to dread the very existence of the Alli-
ance under such shameful assaults. These differences
already, when the Association for Union is scarcely
formed, do not augur well for the successful prosecution
of its objects. The Record, after noticing the character
of the parties who have raised objections to the Alli-
ance, proceeds as follows: •

On the side of the political and Radical Dissenters,
whose exertions seem likely to be most successful against
the 'Mance, must be reckoned Dr. Campbell, the editor
of their magazine, called the Christian Witize,s. He has
always been a keen opponent to the Church, and, in poli-
tics an ultra-Liberal.
This person attended the General Meeting of " the
Congregational Union," held at Manchester in the last
autumn. To that assembly he submitted, or we ought
rather to say, upon that assembly he imposed, a plan for
a new Penny Magazine. He told them, we believe, that,
whether they liked it or not, the said magazine should
appear; but be invited them to confer on it their sanction.
Thus dictated to, they submitted, and after some hesita-
tion resolved, that it was expedient that such a magazine
should be commenced, and that Dr. Campbell should be
the editor.

This new publication has entered on its course, and.
" under the sanction of the Congregational Union," has
obtained a very large circulation. In the very first num-
ber he has inserted a most offensive paper of reasons
" Why I dare not conform to the Church of England,"
which is filled with assertions as untrue and unjustifiable,
as can well be imagined. For instance,—
" Because of its trifling ceremonies, sucl as bowing to
the east,"—" going from the desk to what is impiously
called the altar to read the Communion Service,"—" and
often changing the posture in Divine service."

" Lastli; f might condemn its teaching us Transub-
stantiation,"—" its forbidding me to hear the Gospel,"
&c.

There can be no doubt that, in inserting this paper in
his new magazine, Dr. Campbell has done more to frus-
trate the designs and endeavours of the Committee for
Christian Union, than if, like the editor of the Christian
Observer, he had written sixty or seventy pages against
the feasibility of an " Evangelical Alliance."
The strength of his position is this, that he has ob-
tained the sanction of " the Congregational Union."
Under this sanction he obtains a large circulation for his
magazine ; and whatever he therein writes obtains, in fact,
the official sanction of that large body. It is pleaded,
that the majority of the members, privately, do not ap-
prove of such proceedings; that, on the contrary, they
deeply lament them. But there they are, with their sub-
scription and seal upon them, giving them at once all the
circulation and all the authority which the BODY can
command.

It is quite obvious that we, and other warmly-attached
members of the Church, cannot stand by in silence and
see our Church attacked by calumnies and misrepresenta-
tions (under the sanction of the Congregational Union),
without coming to the rescue. We have driven the poli-
tical Dissenters back once, and notwithstanding the fear-
ful advantage given to all the opponents of the Church by
Tractarian practi( es, we should not fear to drive them
back again. But how shall fare the Alliance amidst such
a contest ?

We avouch, in the face of day, that we have pleaded,
with all earnestness and perseverance, for peace. But
when we call for PEACE, WAR resounds from the oppos-
ing hosts. If it were merely Dr. Campbell who was va-
pouring away, Dr. Campbell might be let alone, or easily
met with far greater truth on the side of the Church, and
far greater ability to place that truth in an advantageous
light. But if the CONGREGATIONAL UNION, now at
this special moment, engages itself in such a crusade
against the Establishment, what shall we say ?

-We therefore implore the Congregational Union to
separate themselves, OFFICIALLY. from Dr. Campbell
and his magazine, to which, we may hope, they have in-
advertently given their sanction. If they have not Chris-
tian vigour to do this,—if they allow Dr. Campbell to
drag them at his heels through the mire of his political
Radicalism and anti-State and Church Ultraism, they
will be failing egregiously in their duty, and allowing, by
their supineness, a cloud of darkness, confusion, and
weakness, to settle down with increasing gloom over the
Church of Christ.

PHILANTHROPIC INz,TITUTIONS.

A CLERGYMAN'S REASON FOR WITHDRAWING FROM

THE TEMPERANCE SOCIETY.

The Rev. Nicholas C. Dunscombe, formerly curate of
and id
rneosws
eodf
aTleemt
tpelre,
un-
derSht a.
Mi-
chael,
Mark'stien the eeCsshtouhurtcihnh so, tfianln rtte,hlitason town,dth: ehasand
editor of the Cork Con-
stitution, in reference to some recent remarks on the tem-
perance cause, in which he was alluded to as one of its
iormer advocates. The writer adopts as a motto to his
epistle the following extract from Bishop Butler, which,
indeed, briefly conveys the scope of his argument through-
out :

"The happiness of the world is the concern of him who
has made it; nor do we know what we are about when we
endeavour to promote the good of mankind in any way
but those which he has decreed."

The reverend gentleman (who writes in a most friendly
tone) admits that the editor and others may justly inquire
" If it be your conviction, and that of others, that the
principles of the temperance society cannot stand the test
of truth, why did you not investigate those principles more
closely before:you adopted and advocated them ? Why
hostilely take a step which it is now admitted involved
both yourself and others in error !" The writer admits
that he should haie done so, but that what is past is irre-
vocable, and that the principal reparation he can make is
openly to acknowledge the error that has been committed.
It is also, he admits, justly inquired " what error has been
committed in having advocated the claims of such a phi-
lanthrophic institution as the Temperance Society ?" and
replies in the words of another,:who says, " Man's reco-
very
can be effected only by the principles of the gospel.
process cases.
Man's malady does not consist in a series of outward
transgressions, but in an inward alienation from God.
The produce of that principle is outward transgression, of
various
to it, but
by descriptions,
an
alterative
various
"s'etTahgi
eonqguootnattiohne
goes on to the conclusion that " man's evil conduct can-
not be rectified by any direct application of command-
ment
affections, in order that those alienated affections may be
brought back
within the attraction of holy happy love—
that is, God." If the truths here conveyed be lost sight
of, we may wander (continues the writer) in mazes of er-
ror. Man's evil actions are not his disease, but the symp-
toms of it. Drunkenness is a symptom ; a heart aliena-
ted from God is the disease. To deal with symptoms,
without coming to the source, is to apply a defective re-
medy, and this was not true philanthropy. Real phi-
lanthropy—the philanthropy of God, is (he continues)
explained in Titus, 3rd chap. 4th verse, (which he quotes
entire,) the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards
man that appeared not by works of righteousness, which
we have done, but that being renewed and justified by his
grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life. The end of God's philanthrophy is salvation.
That philanthropy acts not by merely improving what is
corrupt, but by introducing into the soul a new principle
of action (by the working of regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Ghost,) and, to repeat the extract at the com-
mencement of this letter, " we know not what we are
about when we endeavour to proinote the good of man-
kind in any way but those he has appointed." In pursu-
ing the plan of God's philanthropy, we must sound
abroad the message of redeeming love, and point our fel-
low sinners and fellow-sufferers to Christ Jesus as the
manifestation of the love of God, in order that we may
win back the " alienated heart" to God, and so dispose it
to all godly affections, desires, and pursuits, Without
starting at this point, man's philanthropic schemes will
end in disappointment and disaster.
It may, he continues, be objected that the advocates of
the temperance cause do not profess to employ the truths
of the gospel in carrying on their work, but merely to
plough up the ground and prepare it : but where, it may
be asked, is their authority for making morality a prepa-
ration for the gospel. Until the temperance cause be
certain what sort of seed will be sown in the furrows they
have opened, their philanthropy falls short of the model
referred to ; for so long as a member of the society keeps
his pledge of abstinence, his fellow-members have not a
word to say to him.on any other score. " It is good (says
the apostle) neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, not
any thing whereby the brother stumbleth, or is made
weak;" but this, says the writer, applies only to one in
church-fellowship—a believer in the same essential doc-
trines—a sheep of the same fold, and one on whose con-
science those who abstained on his behalf had full oppor-
tunity to bring the purifying motives of the gospel to bear
in all their free and unfettered power. The writer goes
on to say that we have no authority for attempting to re-
move drunkenness, unless by those means which are
mighty through God to reach and to cleanse the spring
whence that evil arises ' • and that he himself widely erred
in endeavouring to employ inferior remedies, to the neg-
lect of this sovereign remedy, which God had exhibited
in the gospel of His Son (Titus ii., 11th and 15th) ; and,
deemed it a public duty to acknowledge the error he bad
committed. He adds, that it would give him heartfelt
pleasure if the warning voice he has raised were " the
means of putting his younger brethren in the ministry on
the guard against those philanthropic bubbles whkh may
seduce them from the plain path of Christian devotedness,
or tempt them to combat evil with any other weapons than
those which the heavenly armoury supplies." And again,
" Woe be to the minister who, in expostulating with sin-
ners, dares to employ arguments or motives which the
gospel of Christ does not clearly stamp with its approval!
He concludes by an aspiration that the day may come
when the many labourers will go forth into the " vineyard
of the world" to do the work of the Evangelists, and to
win souls to Christ, and whose patient, generous, and im-
partial spirit shall give ample evidence that they are no
strangers to thilove which " many waters cannot quench,
and which the floods cannot drown."

Sift WALTER SCOTT ON BEAUTY.--In one of the de-
lightful descriptions of female loveliness which adorn the
pages of this interesting writer. he alludes to a fragrant
and balmy mouth and pearly set of teeth, as ranking
among the first attributes of Feminine Beauty. The care
and conservation, therefore, of ornaments so precious and
important, cannot fail to become objects of high interest,
and our own experience induces us unhesitatingly to re;
commend " ROWLAND'S ODONTO, or Pearl Dentrifice,
as an indispensable appendage to the toilet of beauty, and
as calculated to heighten and preserve the advantages of
" balmy breath" and " pearly teeth" in all their beauty
and perfection.—See advt.