As such, dear brother, we commend you to GOD, and to the Word of His Grace, charging you before Him, that it be your unceasing care and study to make yourself and the brethren in the ministry committed to your jurisdiction, examples both to believers and unbelievers of the lively efficacy of the glorious Gospel of Salvation; showing forth its power in word, and conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Let not your good be evil spoken of. Give none offense. Be not partaker in the sins of others. The soundness in the Faith and holiness of life to which we all are bounden, becomes specially requisite in the honored instruments in the revival of the Lord's work where it is decayed, the chosen vessels for the communication of His grace to the needy portions of His household. In Him and the power of His might, be strong, and to His name be the glory now and for ever more. AMEN. PHILANDER CHASE, PRESIDING BISHOP. Signed in New York, Nov. 5th, 1844, by WILLIAM ROLLINSON WHITTINGHAM, Bishop of Maryland.

Such was the admirable Letter of Instructions from our House of Bishops. Its recognition of the Catholic Church of the Creeds, in which every Churchman, solemnly before God, professes to believe as a part of his Faith, could not be more explicit; and the principles, on which the Letter was drawn up, are as unchangeable as the Faith and promises of Christ. The Missionaries of the American Board, however, did not recognize at all the Churches which already existed, planted, as they were, by Apostolic hands; they sought no formal connection with the Ecclesiastical Institutions which they found; their real purpose, as it now appears, was to pull down and uproot, (though that purpose was carefully concealed,) and then to establish everything according to their own "resolved opinions." They have, confessedly, utterly failed. And mortifying as our own want of success was in that same field, especially when we remember what agencies and instrumentalities were employed in its defeat, yet, in comparison with the melancholy disaster of the Mission of the American Board, we look back to our effort with gratitude. Its principles were sound; and if ever those old candlesticks are to burn again with a heavenly light, it will be by some such work of faith and love, renewed with a stronger confidence and under brighter auspices.

If we knew the true history of the rupture between these new converts and the Missionaries, and the real causes of dissatisfaction, which led to the throwing off all connection with their former masters, we might speak more confidently as to

the future history of these separatists from the Armenian Church. We have said enough to show why such a Mission could not be successful. The "Declaration" which we have given above is painfully suggestive, as to the converts themselves. It seems to show, that it is a mere question of power which is at stake. Apparently, every vestige of reverence for the old landmarks has been obliterated from the minds of the converts. That Church which poured out its blood in martyrdom in the Decian persecution; that Church which stands adorned with the name of the saintly Gregory; that Church which has for so many ages preserved the Faith and has glowed with the warmth of true devotion, as her Offices clearly show; that Church, with its primitive Doctrine, Ministry and Worship, seems to have no hold upon the affections of this new band of seceders. Their Declaration would seem to imply, that the element of modern German Rationalism has already taken possession of them, and that the Church, as "the pillar and ground of the Truth," is utterly discarded. They say, it is our "duty," and our "privilege" "to govern ourselves by an Apostolic and lawful organization, having the word of God as our guide, together with the testimony of our consciences." Having already separated themselves from the "Apostolical" organization, and taken as their guide the testimony, not of the pure primitive age of the Apostolic Church, but of their own "consciences," it is not difficult to conjecture where that "guide" will, at length, land them. Nor do we doubt, that the advice of the Missionaries, repeated again and again, was honestly given; "let him who cannot agree with our course, return wherever he came from." That is, better that these converts should go back again into the bosom, the communion and fellowship of the Armenian Church, with all its corruptions, than launch out into the deep, with no other compass and rudder than their own consciences to guide them. Alas! we fear the example of these Missionaries will be more powerful than their words of warning.

Meanwhile, and in conclusion, we cannot but urge, with all the earnestness in our power, upon our brethren of the English Church, especially upon the Venerable Society for the Propa

gation of the Gospel, that they will take this matter into their own hands. We know, better than they know, the deep, we are willing to say honest hostility of the American Board to primitive Order and Discipline, to the Creeds, the Episcopate, and the Liturgies, of the Apostolic Church. That battle has been fought here for fifty years, openly and publicly. As American Churchmen, we have gained the victory at home; but we are, as yet, too few, too feeble, and, sad to confess, too faithless, to follow the battle to the distant field in the East, where it is now carried. Our words will reach some who can move effectually. Let English Churchmen, whose power and activity in the work of Christ in these modern times we are grateful to witness, engage, with all their immense resources, in the Reformation of the Oriental Churches, on the same basis as that on which their own Branch of the Church was freed from modern usurpations and corruptions. The Genevan theory of Reform has borne its sad, bitter fruits at home, in its own birth-place; let it not be left to bring forth still more disastrous results in a land and among a people where, of all places under the sun, it cannot but be most prolific of multiform evils.

ART. III.—THE PROVINCIAL SYNOD OF THE PROVINCE OF CANADA.

THE assembling within the Cathedral of Montreal of five Bishops of the Province of Canada, and of the Clergy and Laity of five Dioceses, was a very grateful event to the Church in this Colonial dependency of the British Crown; and the solemnity was deepened, when the aged Bishop of Quebec said, in his truly evangelical Sermon,-" At the time when he who now addresses you first came into the world, there was but one (Colonial) Bishop of the Church of England, and that Bishop was the first; before him there was not one solitary example to be found, in the entire extent of the Colonial dependencies, throughout the empire. We now number upwards of Forty Colonial Bishops, and in Canada alone, with an approaching happy accession, we have five and six within a range of country, which, at one time, was traversed by the Episcopal Ministrations of one among us"-that one is the Bishop of Quebec himself. And again, "in that portion of America, which, while it belonged to us, we left unprovided for, the number of Bishops exceeds forty." So much accomplished under great discouragements within the life of one man in Canada, and of two generations in America. Surely the hand of the Lord hath done this! And, as if the time of the Church's refreshing had fully come, here we find assembled, in Montreal, the Provincial Synod of Canada, where, but eight short years since, the struggle first began on behalf of Diocesan Synods.

Whatever doubts existed to check the onward movement, they have been dispelled, and the Right Rev. Bishops give their testimony in favor of the revival of the Church's inherent rights, confident that Divine Order will never miscarry, when undertaken under Divine help. The vitality, of which the Church of England gives such marked evidence, has at no time, or in no place, been more striking, than in the large and important Province of Canada; and to those who have watched the action of Synodal assemblies convened in the several

Dioceses, it must be matter of sincere wonder and congratulation, that so much should have been accomplished at such little cost.

The Church in the States of America, when called to discharge her duty to the people, found that the great hindrances to be combatted and overcome, were poverty, and the national prejudices, which had, in consequence of Revolution, arisen between the late Colonists and the Mother Country. "The Church of England" was somehow so entirely associated with "The Government of England," that the popular voice condemned the one, in their condemnation of the other, and conceived a prejudice for one because of similar dislikes to the other. But if, in the first out-burst of popular feeling, American Churchmen were made painfully aware of the difficulties through which they would necessarily have to pass, they,. nevertheless, exhibited a loyal devotion to principles, which were sacred, and, as written by the Law of God on their hearts, must be maintained and defended. The Episcopate secured! according to Apostolic and primitive usage, and from direct,. unbroken Apostolic descent, through both branches of the Catholic Church of Christ in Britain, the inherent and Divine right of the Church revived, and, as separate from the State, congregated in Synodal Assembly, and unfettered, save by the Canons and customs of the Primitive Church, and by accept-ing the formularies and Articles of England's Church, the Episcopal Church of America began the warfare for CHRIST,. which she, in common with the sister Churches of Christendom, has to wage. There were no local governmental privileges to overcome. The State had no claims to urge especially on her;: no conflicting interests necessitated that the strong arm of power should seize by violence the heritage of the Redeemer.. The contest was for Christ's heritage, for the very existence of His Church. The struggle has been a mighty one; but, depending on no earthly aid, and working out her system, according to the universal law, which a hallowed antiquity and the Word of God dictate, she now is rising, like a giant refreshed, and, with a mighty hand and stretched out arm, is gathering in God's people from all parts of the nation. If, 37*

VOL. XIV.NO. III.