240 DR. CHALMERS, 



Beneath stern Jason's conq'ring hand, 

 Or that destroying, fatal brand 

 Medea, in her fury wild, 

 Sent to King Creon's hapless child : 

 Nor did the wand'ring son of Jove, 

 Though with his fatal club he clove 

 Hydras and Centaurs, ever see 

 So wonderful a prodigy. 



Thus let the vet'ran chase away 



The cares of life's declining day ; 



Let him a pleasing hour employ 



In the sweet dreams that sooth'd the boy, 



Cnlling the gay delicious flowers 



That bloom within the Muse's bowers. 



DR. CHALMERS THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND- 

 RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENTS. 



DR. CHALMERS' late visit last autumn to the metropolis created 

 a sensation in the religious world. We were among the thousands 

 whom his fame attracted to Regent Chapel. We think highly of his 

 eloquence his piety none will call in question ; but in his judg- 

 ment our confidence is limited indeed. 



His discourse on religious establishments, which discourse has 

 since been published, is altogether an extraordinary production. It 

 is extraordinary no less for the illustrations it contains of the rever- 

 erend gentleman's positions on the subject, than for the positions 

 themselves. 



But surprised as we are at the Doctor's notions on religious esta- 

 blishments, we are still more so at the ground he takes with respect 

 to the Church of England. He says " he felt quite assured that if 

 the wealth which is still in reserve for the elements or the reward of 

 an elevated scholarship be enervated, or even transferred to the sup- 

 port of the church's homelier and humbler services, then will Eng- 

 land cease to be that impregnable bulwark of orthodoxy, which she 

 has heretofore proved, in virtue of her many ecclesiastical champions, 

 among the nations of Protestant Christianity. 



This is startling enough, without controversy : it is more extraor- 

 dinary as coming from a Clergyman of the Church of Scotland. We 

 had thought that none but a bishop could have used such language : 

 we could scarcely credit the fidelity of our auricular organs when 

 the words first fell on our ears in Regent Chapel. The Doctor de- 

 fends the English hierarchy as it is. His vision can discover no 

 blemish either in the Church's constitution or working. It is not 

 enough that she be allowed her enormous revenues ; but those re- 

 venues must not be more equally distributed among her clergy. If 

 any part of the church's wealth, that is to say, the incomes of her 

 bishops, be " transferred to her homelier and humbler services," then 

 both the church and religion will be ruined to a certainty " Eng- 



