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Religion in England.

Dr. Stoughton's two volumes on the History of Religion in England, from 1800 to 1850, are not very deep. They do not trace religion to the stomach or the liver. The staple is agreeable gossip about clergymen.

Surveying the religion of this century, in England, the most striking feature is undoubtedly the Tractarian movement, which broke up the way for the Church of Rome to get a footing. The names of Newman, Manning, and Faber are of the chief prominence in English Catholicism, but there has been, and is, a vast amount of unrecognised ability in the clerical ranks of the Church. We mean unrecognised outside the Church itself, for its ecclesiastics do not appear before the public.

From the position of a Newman, we descend through all the grades of Ritualism. Its mild, and, so to speak, orthodox form was illustrated in Keble and Hook. All the divisions of the Church of England in the present day, High, Low, and Broad, are characterised by great energy. There is little or no room for such easy-going prelates as Bishop Bathurst, of Norwich. This gentleman receives much more gentle treatment from Dr. Stoughton than he did from Dean Stanley, in the little memorial of his father, who succeeded Bathurst in the Norwich Bishopric.

It is a sign of the times that Bishop Temple, one of the authors of the Essays and Reviews, has been advanced from the see of Exeter to that of London, in succession to such a straitlaced ecclesiastic as Bishop Jackson. Energy, we say, is the common mark of such divergent characters, and views, as those of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of Peterborough, Durham, Manchester, Liverpool, Litchfield, Bedford, Ripon, London, and Rochester. The Church of England is adopting fresh and aggressive measures to reach the lower classes. The Church Army, however, is regarded very doubtfully.

The Presbyterian Church is undergoing a remarkable upheaval. Chalmers and Guthrie would be aghast to view it. We notice that while the new "Encyclopœdia Britannica" reprints Macaulay's article on Dr. Johnson, the theology contributed by Dr. Chalmers formerly has gone by the board, and is replaced by Robertson Smith and Company. There is no such aggressive and revolutionary liberalising movement in the Church of England to-day as there is among the Presbyterians. This is referable to German influence. It seems indispensable for the young ministers to imbibe at the founts of Delitsch. Some stop there, and more don't.

The Wesleyan Church maintains a wonderfully solid front. We have a strong sympathy with this body, and discern in such men page 68 as Punshon, Rattenbury, Perks, Coley, Osborn, Rigg, Jenkins, Waddy, and many others, lately passed away or still living, efficient powers in helping to keep society leavened with true religion. This Church's firmness in dogma is the central source of its power. It stands almost as united as the Church of Rome.

The trouble of Wesleyanism is not heterodoxy, but worldliness. We do not know what amount of hypocrisy there may be. The conference records are singularly amicable on doctrine. Every man believes and preaches on the straight plank. But what worries the clergy is the sliding scale towards the fashionable party, the innocent card-table, the round dance, the concert and the theatre. Alas! Riches choke the word.

The Congregationals, or Independents, verge towards Unitarianism. Emerson said that every Denomination had its peculiar face. Contrast the anxious look of the Wesleyan with the comfortable and self-satisfied visage of the Independent. The Baptists produce more noteworthy men, but here again you see the effect of firmness in doctrine. Right or wrong, this produces the clergy of strong nerves, and those who make an impact on society.

We could not leave Mr. Spurgeon out of a list of the first three preachers in this century. Just consider the severity of the test applied to him, in the publication of 1500 of his sermons. Beecher is of higher mental calibre, but, we take it, he has never wielded such a deep spiritual power as Spurgeon. Spurgeon could never have recovered from a Tilton case. Beecher holds more of the attitude of a social statesman. His liberal divagations of late have strengthened the cause of orthodoxy in America. People connect the creed with the man, and vice versa. Talmage is a posturer, but exercises a wide influence for good, with his sledge-hammer.