Brief Summary of Contents.

• Signs of Progress in Anglican, Roman, and other Churches. Our belief in Deity, its basis and limitations.
• The Religious Nature of man.
• Universality of Law.
• Extravagancies of the present Religious Symbolism.
• The essential elements of Universal Worship.
• Aspiration, not Supplication.
• Ideal of a National Church.
• Hints to Professional Teachers.
• Proposed Religious Service for a New Catholic Church.

Neither Calvinism, nor Presbyterianism, nor Thirty-nine Articles, nor High Churchism, nor Low Churchism, nor any existing organization can be the Church of the future.

—Norman Macleod, D.D.

In asking the attention of thoughtful members of our various religious bodies to the suggestions with which the latter portion of this pamphlet is occupied, a few remarks upon the condition of religious feeling and speculative philosophy at the present time may be made by way of introduction.

The religious world—especially in England, Germany, and America—is in our day sadly out of harmony with modern thought, and the air is heavy with coming changes. Not yet, however, has the tempest actually burst upon us in its fury, although the dark thunder-clouds are visible above the horizon, and the deep and dull mutterings of disagreement may be heard. Doubt, schism, and thoughts of secession rankle and spread in the churches. Should we conclude that the unrest and dissatisfaction which so generally prevail are things of evil omen? Or should we not rather believe that they are the harbingers of a new and grander development of intellectual, moral, and religious thought and life, pointing to a second Reformation that is approaching, when all Truth will be gladly hailed, and every earnest seeker after the Beautiful and the Good will receive a genial look and friendly welcome? After the storm shall have cleared the air, our spirits will be more free, and we shall rejoice in the revived beauties of a serener sky.

1. When Science modestly speaks within her own domain, and when she can be made to repeat her demonstrations and deductions at our option, it avails little that ignorant religious page 8 enthusiasts should censure her truth-loving votaries and scream out "Scientific Infidelity," that visionaries should pooh-pooh the unanswerable from pulpits and platforms or perform pilgrimages to Pontigny. The golden days of superstition in England are going. Old prejudices are breaking up. Science is in the ascendant. Theologians are being swept from many old moorings by the rising tide of knowledge. The sooner statements conflicting with scientific truths, however sincerely they may be advanced by any number of persons, are withdrawn, the better.

It is now on all hands very generally conceded that the Cosmogony of Genesis and the sciences of Astronomy and Geology are in some important respects at variance; and to represent statements of that book on these points as divine and infallible is delusive and obstructive. This, until recently was denied and repudiated by both the Roman Catholic and the Protestant Churches. But science is no respecter of persons and false systems. Science is benign and refreshing to man; kind to all; good and useful as the warmth and sunshine and showers. Some religious teachers are in a nervous flutter to-day. They keep sending off fog-signals telling of their darkness, doubts, and difficulties. We advise them to make confession of their troubles to thoughtful scientific men; and light, more light, soft and beautiful as the new and true Electric Light will be shed upon some of their many anxieties, disputations, and uncertainties. It is plain that if Religion is to hold its place in the world, it must not be contradictory to true philosophy and science. The "scientific imagination" will not be damped-down by unbecoming anathemas or bold dogmatic utterances. Encroachments are surely and extensively being made upon the outlying region of Probability.

It is well known—nay, it is commonplace talk at our tables—that Heresy abounds at many important centres of learning, that both clerical status and clerical influence are on the wane in England, and that, except in men of inferior ability, there is a growing disinclination at our Universities and page 9 Colleges to take holy orders. This reluctance will probably rather increase than diminish, unless our popular theology is speedily recast, and our religious opinions re-formed and modified into agreement with accepted science and philosophy.

In contrast to this, it is cheerfully admitted that the concessions which are being made by many religious bodies point hopefully to a better understanding, and a closer union among our more careful and matured thinkers. The orthodoxy of the last generation is not the orthodoxy of to-day. Indeed, so rapid are the fluctuations of thought on questions of Christian Doctrine, that it is hard to determine who keep, and who keep not, the true ecclesiastical Faith, "whole and undefiled." Once it was considered dangerous to interfere with men's belief in the doctrine of Eternal Torment; now it is the less appalling conception of Future Punishment, finite in duration, that finds respectable defenders. Once clerical thinkers were chary of ventilating doubts on the Atonement; now there are many theories of Atonement, advocated too, not without, but within the pale of orthodoxy, all characterized by important deviations from the old scheme of Vicarious Satisfaction, and Substitutionary Redemption. Once the professional teacher of Religion, who should have whispered a doubt concerning the Plenary Inspiration of Scripture, would have been deemed not only bold, but audacious, and would, in all probability, have lost something far more, substantial than caste with his sector party. Now theologians calmly discuss the nature and extent of Inspiration, and detect "human elements" in the Bible, while a Bishop finds flaws in the genealogies of the Pentateuch, and disputes the asserted number of the ancient Hebrews at the Exodus. And if we turn to the Church of Rome, there, too, we notice signs of involuntary homage to freedom—for even the most Ultramontane Catholics appear desirous to convince us that the rights of Conscience and Individuality in religion are fully recognized within their communion; that they court free discussion, demand a fair field and no favour, and strive to feel that they are abreast of the time in which we live.

Other agencies, likewise, than those which are directly intellectual, are tending silently, yet powerfully, to soften theological asperity, and to make men, in their spirit and daily bearing, less hard, less severely angular, less thorny—in a word, less repellent towards one another, than they consistently might be, according to their professed creeds. There are irresistible social influences at work in society, the effect of which is to make the most conflicting elements—from the profound and devoted Roman Catholic on the one hand, to the cultivated and devout Theist on the other—not unfrequently to meet and blend in harmony, "like kindred drops that mingle into one." In England neither dissenting Christian nor Jew has much to complain of civil disabilities. This absence of grievance, this social equality, and especially the informal and incessant intercourse, public and private, occurring every day between man and man, promote that mutual understanding of each other's position and principles, which is so fatal to the sectarian bitterness that is fostered by rivalry, distrust, and isolation. Such are some of the gratifying features of a freer intercourse amongst our diverging religious organizations.

2. It may be safely affirmed, that Theology, Religion, and Science, are now perceived and acknowledged—more dearly than they ever were before—to be the normal products of the human mind—systems which are in unison, parts of one grand harmony—each having its true and appropriate place, and all exerting a stimulating, educating, and elevating influence on mankind. If we may judge from many signs of our generation, we cannot but indulge the hope, that, in the not distant future, Religion and Science—rivals no longer, but sisters—will forget their ancient mistrust and animosity, and shed conjointly upon humanity an influence so genial, that the understanding will be enriched and mellowed by the heart, and the heart will be nurtured and regulated by the understanding. Even the Atheistic-Secularist is by the clearer light of modern science changing position—emerging from his eclipse of faith. This disquieted school of the unattached, with its levelling tactics and chaotic tendencies, contributing little better than a "may-be" to the solution of page 11 almost every proposition that can be offered, and so seldom accompanied by the soft graces of humility, nowhere stirs humanity into a glow. "Mere negation," Lord Macaulay tells us, "has never disturbed the peace of the world. It furnishes no motive for action. It inspires no enthusiasm. It has no missionaries, no crusaders, no martyrs." We have brought together at the end of this pamphlet a number of extracts tending to show that the most advanced thought of our time is on the side of Theology and Religion.

3. An active and persistent endeavour after an enlarged freedom is a chief characteristic of our time.

Free inquiry; free speech; a free press, exposing and keeping in check fanaticism; a free telegraph, hourly flashing to distant lands intelligence of important events transpiring in the more enlightened parts of the world; a free ocean, with the safe and speedy steamship distributing her cargo of untold blessings, and adding thereby to the common stock of wealth and happiness; the still faster railway carriage, bringing distant races into closer contact, and enabling them to read divine pencillings similar to their own in the faces of others—such influences as these help to mould our thoughts and lives into better and nobler forms.^* The progress of the human race is slowly but surely advancing, and its more complete development, by sound culture, must tend to make humanity a glorious thing in the world. Could the Eternal-Infinite One be imaged in any finite work, we might, in figurative language, exclaim that Man is, indeed, a noble although a mysterious mirror of the Deity, and, with all his limitations and imperfections, he yet illustrates, on a scale incomparably higher than any other being on our planet, the

^* We were in Switzerland with an American friend when the railway was being constructed on the banks of Lake Geneva, which now goes all the way from Amsterdam to Rome. We asked him what he thought its effect would be upon the stagnant mind of the Roman Catholic peasantry along its route. He answered, "I put that question to a Roman Catholic priest," and let our readers mark the reply of this representative of the once archenemy of science and the neglector of human cleanliness—"Sir, it is the road to hell!" Roman Catholics must be told to sharpen and push forward their commonsense, improve their manners and methods, and move on, or they will assuredly have to move off.

page 12 essential principles of Intelligence and Love. He reflects more of the Divine than any other being that we know.

4. The consciousness of Infinitude, of the Boundless-One, the All-embracing Uncreate, which cannot be thought away, may be said to be God's intuitional and elementary gift or revelation of Himself to Man. All the visible objects and invisible agencies of Nature, however vast and varied, exist and move and act in that Eternal sphere, each finite per se—are all limited in size, in power, and in number.

"Had there e'er been nought, nought still had been;" and "Everything that happens has a Cause." No part of the Universe ever sprang into existence by virtue of its own energy. The world reverberates with fully accentuated affirmations that God is, that He is first, and that He rules for ever. The Formless Infinite, the Indivisible One changes not position, and is without part or passion. What, then, it may be asked, is our conception of this indestructible element of thought, which is devoid of form and time? We reverently answer: That which Is, and is A Pure Ens, of which degree is unthinkable. It is not manifold or plural and of time; but simple or singular and eternal. It is always infinite, never indefinite, not more nor less, not better nor worse. Accordingly, this view clears the ground and prepares the way for the realization of Theism, by excluding any form of Atheism, Anthropomorphism, Pantheism, or Polytheism.

We believe—nor are we singular in the belief—that there is in man the abiding consciousness of an ever-present Deity, Whom—it has of old been, perhaps, correctly said—we do not "know," and of Whom, in his being, we humbly confess that we have no mental image, picture, or perception. This seems to be the groundwork of a true theology. An infinite energy, force, or will, is, of itself, not comprehensible. The infinite, as such, cannot be thought of as forming part of anything which is finite; nor can the finite be transposed into the infinite by any mental process or effort of the mind. They are distinct and dissimilar; there is no ratio of like- page 13 ness. Although there is analogy between all things in the universe, there is none between the infinite and the finite, eternity and time. A broad and deep curtain of darkest shade hangs between the intellect of man and any supposed attributes of God. In the streamlet of our thoughts finite qualities only adequately flow, and are distinctly representable by us. No human imagination has painted, no judgment has comprehended, the essence or substance of the Uncreate.

" What Thou art surpasses me to know."

" How Thou art, and seemest to Thine own being,

I can never know, any more than I can assume Thy nature."

" To think that God is, as we can think Him to be, is blasphemy."

Not What Thou art, or How Thou art, but That Thou art, is wisdom.

This conclusion, so important in the discussion of theology, is maintained by the diligent scholar and eminent metaphysician of our century in the following well-known passage:—"The infinite God cannot by us, in the present limitation of our faculties, be comprehended or conceived. A Deity understood, would be no Deity at all; and it is blasphemy to say that God only is as we are able to think Him to be. We know God according to the finitude of our faculties; but we believe much that we are incompetent properly to know. The infinite, the infinite God, is what, to use the words of Pascal, is infinitely inconceivable. Faith,—Belief—is the organ by which we apprehend what is beyond our knowledge. In this, all Divines and Philosophers, worthy of the name, are found to coincide; and the few who assert to man a knowledge of the infinite, do this on the daring, the extravagant, the paradoxical supposition, either that Human Reason is identical with the Divine, or that Man and the Absolute are one."

We, therefore, assume that the Eternal-Infinite One, by and in whom we live and move, is not a Person with human faculties and qualities indefinitely enlarged and improved. And three distinct and dissimilar Infinite Entities—a triple or page 14 triad Deity—looks like an absurdity, which renders "confusion worse confounded." Indeed, we may reaffirm that any infinite quality, property, or faculty, which might be conjectured, is the veriest phantom of the imagination, and cannot, as such, be realized by human thought. Such powers and qualities are always things of degree, and exist in man. Symbolically, then, but symbolically only, God may be regarded as our Heavenly Father and Mother, who is most wise, and good, and affectionate. Figuratively, but as a figure of speech merely, He may be said to be the Sun of Righteousness, and the Rock of Ages. If Infinite and absolute, however, we need scarcely remark, that He cannot be informed, and does not require, as we have endeavoured to show, to be instigated, importuned, or, sometimes, with deplorable irreverence, told what to do! We think that the purity and sublimity of worship are tainted and enfeebled by men making the Creator in their own image, giving Him a Will like unto a human, considering Him to be an Impersonal Force, or a Personal Energy, or some sort of a Spiritual Personality, a man-like God, who may be influenced by entreaty, gifts, and flattery. Anthropomorphism is but the creation of a wild and wandering imagination, pervading all the ancient and many modern forms of religious thought.

But although the Object of the Religious Emotions is veiled in mystic shadows impenetrable to the gaze of the acutest intellect, we hold that there is in man an intuition, a sentiment, or an a priori form, or condition of thought, that prompts to a belief in the existence of a Deity, and this appears to be ineradicably rooted in the native substance and structure of the mind. May we ask the question:—Are we not often certain of the Existence of a Cause, believing that it is, and perceiving what it is Adequate to Produce, without knowing what it is in itself?^*

Although the "I am that I am" cannot be comprehended by us, having no likeness to anything in heaven or earth, may we not reasonably believe that He Is—that He is unthinkably grand in His Being, existing, we may suppose, in our imaginary flight and ideal treatment, in His own uncreated light, more majestic than motion, more wise than conceivable wisdom, more loving than any imaginable love? We acknowledge that He can only be imperfectly represented, if represented at all, in thought and speech by finite symbols, of which the purest and best that we know are Truth, Wisdom, Love, Spirit.

Is it not a low conception, a mean estimate of Deity, to think of Him as a being like unto His handy-work? And should it be thought complimentary to affirm that He is mighty, wise, and good, with the prefix "All" to each of these human conditions, as if the circle of difficulties were thereby squared? It may be considered certain that every street and square of London, and every page of the two organic kingdoms, flatly contradict such a misuse of terms—such an overcharged and misleading hypothesis. Humanizing the Eternal-Infinite One has been the prolific cause of a countless waste of time, confusion, and contradiction of thought, thousands of useless volumes, much angry and profitless debate. Must a Cause be like its Effect? Because the Deity made a flower, must He be like a flower? Because He made a fish, or bird, must He be like a fish, or bird? And because He made the mind of man, must He, therefore, be like a human mind? This is the "blasphemy" so properly complained of, which should be carefully watched and avoided in our Theological seminaries and Churches. Upon this prevalent error, Professor Tyndall, aided by the clear light of science, and with the soul of deep reverence, remarks: "When I attempt to give the Power which I see manifested in the Universe an objective form, personal or page 16 otherwise, it slips away from me, declining all intellectual manipulation. I dare not, save poetically, use the pronoun 'He' regarding it; I dare not call it a 'Mind;' I refuse to call it even a 'Cause' (?). Its mystery overshadows me; but it remains a mystery, while the objective frames which my neighbours try to make it fit, simply distort and desecrate it." Surely, if we are entitled to believe in a Deity, and are able to affirm that He is, although we do not know what and how He is, and if the world may be correctly held to be that which it has been called, "a thing of time," "a manufactured article," not only created but sustained by Him—this may be considered an ample belief for a truly devout mind, although the being, nature, or essence itself, is altogether unknown, and perhaps, for ever, unknowable.

5. Mind is itself: What thinks exists: Man cannot believe that he himself does not exist. Human Personality and Identity, with the unmistakable intuitions of Here and There, This and That, Now and Then, Self and Not-Self—each standing clearly apart and independently of the other—seem not to be within the possibility of unbelief. (Did any one with a healthy mind ever mistake Not-Self for Self?) Man is, and he thinks. Self plus state, self plus objects, are formal necessities of thought, they are prior to reasoning, require to be assumed, and are superior to any proof. The conscious subject, and the consciousness of objects, are two well-grounded certitudes of belief; they are true in philosophy, safe in practice, trustworthy, and reliable as the solid granite rock itself. "We are immediately conscious in perception," observes Sir William Hamilton, "of an ego and a non-ego, known together, and known in contrast to each other. This is the fact of the Duality of Consciousness. It is clear and manifest. When I concentrate my attention in the simplest act of perception, I return from my observations with the most irresistible conviction of two facts, or rather two branches of the same fact:—that I am—and that something different from me exists. In this act, I am conscious of myself as the perceiving subject, and of an external reality as the object perceived; and I am conscious of both existences in the same indivisible moment of intuition." Mr. J. S. Mill insists upon a similar distinction. "All language," he says, "recognizes a distinction between myself, the Ego, and a world, either material or spiritual, or both, external to me, but of which I page 20 can, in some mode or measure, take cognizance." To the same effect a recent and discriminating Reviewer felicitously writes, "We have the same knowledge that the outward world exists for us an independent thing, essentially apart from sensation, as we have that we exist ourselves; these two convictions are intuitive, and must be assumed if speculation is not to run into mere extravagancies; and we shall find if we act otherwise, that thought on the subject is without a basis. The reasoning which resolves things into objects of perception for us will also resolve our own being into a mere entity of perception; and this absurdity, we think, shows that we must start in Metaphysical inquiries with postulates absolutely incompatible with Berkeley's subtile and ingenious theory."^*

We also venture to submit that these mainstays of philosophic thinking,—the definite, the indefinite, and the infinite on the one hand; and time, duration, and eternity on the other,—are true finger-posts and stepping-stones in conducting the Senses, the Understanding, and the Pure Reason to absolute conclusions in Philosophy, Religion, and Theology. The mind's perception of Succession and its laws of Causality and Inference, which imperatively demand that every effect, or thing which begins to be, necessarily requires a sufficient cause, are as binding in Reason and absolutely safe for Be

^* In a work recently published, entitled "The Philosophy of Kant," by Professor Edward Caird, we read:—"So long as he [Berkeley] is arguing that the mind can apprehend nothing but ideas, and that an object which is not an idea is an absurdity, he is irresistible; because we suppose him to be maintaining only the self-evident proposition that consciousness cannot get out of itself." This statement seems to involve a fallacy. Why should any one think that he cannot have an idea of himself, and another idea of an object existing outside of himself, say, a billiard-ball, a statue, or the moon? And why should consciousness require to "get out of itself" in order that any of these should be perceived? Do they exist because we think them, or do we think them because they exist? Does the ear, for instance, make the wave-like motions of air? Or the eye the wave-like movements of light, which speed along, it is said, at 186,000 miles in a second before they enter it? Although no one can leap out of his own skin or away from his shadow, do not men with sound Common-Sense correctly believe that they may, and often do, leap from and to those of their neighbours? We are assured by Geologists, that our earth existed many millions of years prior to man. Must we then conclude that this science is a fiction, and must be cancelled in order that Idealism should prevail? In fact, the whole doctrine of evolution is deprived of its foundation, unless we believe that the energy of nature exists outside of, and independent of, the consciousness of the mind of man.

page 21 lief, as that twice two are four—neither more nor less. Does the universe that is known by us not admit of an antecedent? Do any of the sixty-three simple or elementary substances in themselves afford evidence that they necessarily exist? Take a molecule of sand, split it into its chemical constituents, oxygen and silicon, and do either of these two kinds of atoms suggest the faintest hint of their eternal being? Nay, the entire globe on which we are, with its origin in the far-distant past of incalculable millions of years, presents to many eminent Chemists and Geologists not a feature of independent existence, and the two organic kingdoms—the Vegetable and the Animal—are assuredly not self-originated and self-sustained.

Professor Flint in his recent work on Theism writes:—"Should we seek, then, after what is eternal? Science tells us that it is not the earth, nor anything which it contains; not the sea, nor the living things within it; not the moving air, not the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars. These things when interrogated all tell us to look above and beyond them, for although they may have begun to be in times far remote, yet it was within times to which the thoughts of finite beings can reach back."

"If art to form and wisdom to conduct
Reside not in each block, a Godhead reigns."

6. In the uniformity or even tenour of the world, the thoughtful and the wise have full trust. There is no chance or caprice in nature, except to the careless or the stupid.

The farmer feels safe in acting upon the experiences of former years in growing grain and rearing cattle; the engineer accepts the strength of metals and the force of steam; the ship-builder the carrying power of water; the chemist recognizes the reality of atoms and their combining properties; the sculptor counts upon the cohesion of marble; the painter relies upon the harmony of colours; the manufacturer, merchant, and banker upon the principles of demand, supply, and exchange; the physician points out the causes of disease, and the established conditions of health; the statesman endeavours to eradicate the one and promote page 22 the other by sanitary laws; the philosopher knows the trustworthiness of the senses, each freighted with the trans-mission of distinctive wonders correctly delivered. And in the higher mental spheres there are the Necessary Truths of the Reason—thinkable one way only—so requisite to the sure foundation and the safe upbuilding of intellectual systems. There is also the authoritative voice of Conscience with an imperative "Yes" or "No;" the ability to observe, compare, and select one to the exclusion of all others in the unmistakable presence of "a better and a worse"—an ethical condition standing, sentry-like, at the springs of actions "not to counsel but command," and entering qualitatively into the very texture of volitions—are all permanently written by God in the Book of Nature and the Constitution of Man.

"The primal duties shine aloft like stars."

The four Seasons come to us unasked. The sweet breath of spring—herald of coming glories; the rich foliage, the flowers and fruits of summer with their unfailing delights of form and perfume; the lovely tints of autumn; the bridal dress of winter gemmed with crystals; the mantle of the world sparkling with countless dewdrops; the starry sky of night "thronged all over with splendours;" the golden and silvern clouds fresh every day; the invisible vital forces actively building up material structures with exquisite fitness of part to part, and parts to whole; the swell and spray of ocean; the graceful gambols of fishes; the hum of insect life; the plumage, song, and easy flight of birds; the sure and gainly step of animals; the marvellous instincts of living beings—untaught knowledge—true as the needle to the pole; the sweet faces and joyous play of children; the daily banquet of the world with the radiant sun pouring transcendent glories of light and heat upon its multitudinous tables laden with bounties; while eager life, reinvigorated by sweet sleep, awakens and rejoices in the perennial feast; all proclaim Divinity!

"Mysterious round! what skill, what force divine,
Deep-felt, in these appear! A simple train,
Yet so delightful, mix'd with such kind art,
Such Beauty and Beneficence combined."

7. God's reign of Law appears to be everywhere in Mind, in Life, and in Matter. There are no signs visible of any inconstant deflecting influence perturbing the world of things and thought. All material bodies and organic beings act as they do by virtue of their original and acquired specialities—each according to itself. Much of our world is to us beautiful, comprehensible, and in its variety charmingly uniform—enough to show that all is under analogous law. Ignorance and chance are bound together—they partially and transiently exist; knowledge and fortuitous events are altogether incompatible.

"Happily," says Prof. W. S. Jevons, "the Universe in which we dwell is not the result of chance, and where chance seems to work it is our own deficient faculties which prevent us from recognizing the operation of Law and Design. . . . In the greatest storm there is nothing capricious; not a grain of sand lies upon the beach, but infinite knowledge would account for its lying there; and the course of every falling leaf is guided by the same principles of mechanics as rule the motions of the heavenly bodies. Chance then exists not in nature, and cannot co-exist with knowledge."

It thus appears that there are no erratic processes and sudden leaps in Nature; there is nothing whimsical, unsupported, accidental; no absurdities or contradictions in her stone and living books. Ask the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals if the wind is ever tempered by the Deity to the shorn lamb? and the ready answer will be, Never! Look over the bills of mortality during a season of severe weather, and it will be seen that all artificial aids recommended prove to be inadequate to prevent a vast increase of disease and death. ^* It is only weak and shallow men

^* "External nature exhibits no trace of moral life. There is no apparent sympathy in nature with moral ends, no faintest intimation of the moral law. The elements are no respecters of persons; they know neither sinner nor saint. The sun smiles alike on the evil and the good. The same moon lights the robber and the minister of mercy on their several ways. The same breeze propels the merchant's and the pirate's sail. Traitor and patriot, murderer and missionary, cannibal and Christian, all have the same nature for their heritage, and find in nature the same accommodation. The blue sky bends over all, the hospitable earth entertains all,—all are served by nature's laws."

F. H. Hedge, D.D.

"I cannot agree with those who think that there is no mystery in mere pain; that it is sufficiently accounted for by moral evil, and involves no separate problem. The history of suffering began on our planet long before that of sin; ages prior to the appearance of man, earth was a scene of war and mutual destruction; hunger and fear, violence and agony, disease and death, have prevailed throughout the air, the land, and ocean, ever since they were tenanted."

Professor Flint, D.D.

About the origin of the world, and why all things are now as they are, we seem to have no faculty sufficient to determine. But we know enough to pronounce emphatically against an inconsiderate and faulty system of pure Optimism. Are there not many natural objects in our world very destructive and heart-rending, smells and sounds absolutely revolting? Does the earthquake, the hurricane, or volcano not present startling evidence against what has been too freely assumed to be an Infinitely Beneficent and Holy Will? On the other hand, Pessimism—melancholy and moody, blatant and dim-sighted Pessimism—the fatal blight of joy, the wreck and ruin of hope and happiness, is even more to be deplored! Waves of this gloomy and sickening philosophy, the wild theories of Schopenhauer and Hartman, with their painful results, have passed over Germany, and threaten England.

How much sober admonition and argumentative preaching, it may be queried, would be required to persuade the English and Scotch farmers that the Colorado Beetle (described by a Bishop as "this noisome beast") is a creature sent by an Infinite One who is on friendly personal relationship with them, one who is in-finitely wise and good, infinitely considerate of their best interests, and that its visit to our shores is not a curse, but a kindness? If we do heartily welcome Spring, and rejoice in the beauty and fragrance of flowers and fruits, and the exquisite structures of animals; we are horror-stricken at the heartless systematic carnage of war lately seen in Turkey and Africa, and we sigh and drop a tear over the Indian famine, and our own late harvests and ruined crops. It is merely a weak evasion of such hard problems to attribute these and other evils to the intervention of a "fallen angel," created by a Deity who fore-knew and fore-ordained his existence and action.

"Theist."

page 24 who talk of luck and put their trust in circumstances. And any day of miracles that may have been has apparently quite gone by. ^* Supposed irruptions from Unseen Powers into the natural order of the world are multiplied in a remote, and diminished as we approach a modern period.

"In the olden times," Dr. Richardson tells us, "each manifestation of diseased action was considered an entity; to be epileptic or insane was, for example, to be possessed of an evil spirit; the causes of the phenomena were left as inscrutable. Diseases were the direct and dire chastisement of a Supreme Power; and to ask their natural origin were to court a superfluous or sinful labour. Even in these days this impression is not altogether absent in civilized communities; in uncivilized, where it has taken root, it remains unchanged. It is not until we are brought to understand the physical design of the phenomena of disease, as opposed to the hypothesis of what has been called 'visitation' and 'entity' of disease, that we can move a step towards any attempt at prevention or removal of the phenomena."

It is the credulous rustic who believes in witchcraft and is afraid of ghosts. That which would have passed for Magic and Divination two hundred years ago, or less, is in our day correctly referred to causes easily understood. ^* This is a

^* "Every one knows how hard a matter it is to perceive accurately, to feel calmly, and to think clearly, when the liver is out of order; there is then a good foundation for hallucination. . . . One may freely admit that persons have seen apparitions, and have heard voices which they thought to be supernatural; but inasmuch as seeing is one thing, and the interpretation thereof quite another thing, it may be right to conclude that they were nothing more than hallucinations, and that the reason why no ghosts are seen now, when people pass through churchyards on dark nights, as our forefathers saw them, is that ghosts are not believed in now-a-days, while we have gained a knowledge of the nature of hallucinations, and of the frequency of their occurrence, which our forefathers had not."

Henry Maudsley, M.D.

"The Red Thorn Apple of Peru is in use among the Indians of the Andes. The fruit of the plant is the part employed, and from it the Indians prepare a strong narcotic drink, which they call Tonga. By the use of this drink they believe that they are brought into communion with the spirits of their forefathers. An Indian under the influence of this drug is thus described—'Shortly after having swallowed the beverage, he fell into a heavy stupor. He sat with his eyes vacantly fixed on the ground, his mouth convulsively closed, and his nostrils dilated. In the course of about a quarter of an hour his eyes began to roll, foam issued from his half-opened lips, and his whole body was agitated by frightful convulsions. These violent symptoms having subsided, a profound sleep of several hours succeeded. In the evening, when I saw him again, he was relating to a circle of attentive listeners the particulars of his vision, during which he alleged he had held communication with the spirits of his forefathers.' . . . The pretended second-sight, and the other marvels told of the old seers of the Scottish Highlands, may owe their origin to nothing more noble or mysterious than a draught of thorn-apple, nightshade, or belladonna tea. And it is highly probable that the Witches Drink was flavoured with the thorn-apple, and that the victims who, in all sincerity, came before the magistrates and declared themselves to have had communications with the Evil One, had, under the influence of this narcotic, seen visions which they could not distinguish from real experience. . . . It is sufficiently strange to see how similar modes and means of imposition were made use of by the priests of nearly every false religion in ancient times for the purpose of deluding their credulous countrymen."

The Chemistry of Common Life.

In the life of George Combe we have the following amusing anecdote, which has a family likness to many other superstitions.—An old lady, an acquaintance of . . . . removed to a new house in Dublin. Nelson's monument stood to the south-east of it. On a cloudy evening it happened to be full moon; and just as the moon had got behind the figure of Nelson, the old lady happened to look out from the window. At the same moment the clouds opened, and showed her the figure of the hero full drawn on the face of the moon. She fell on her knees, prayed aloud, calling for the other persons in the room to come to her assistance. On her knees, with uplifted hands, and in a hollow voice, she exclaimed, "O, Lord God Almighty, thou hast vouchsafed to show me the man in the moon! O, Lord! I am a miserable sinner, and unworthy of thy consideration!" Here the other inmates recognized the real nature of the apparition, burst into loud laughter, and helped the lady to rise from her devotions.

page 26 scientific rather than a superstitious age. There is little or nothing now recognized or cared for by thoughtful persons save orderly development. The myriad adjustments of the universe seem to be well kept; and our own world has not the look of a formless and purposeless jumble, a ponderous and clumsy mechanism, ill-conceived and only half-executed. Although there are many signs indicative of universal Providence in the unchanging laws of Nature, there are none of an interruptive Providence to dovetail with old-fashioned creeds, and fit the fancies of their modern professors. The best health of the body, and the manliest vigour of the mind appear to be inseparable from the consciousness of laws that never deviate a hair's breadth, inseparable from accurate knowledge of them, and strict obedience to them.

The Mind of man seems likewise to have regular and reliable procedure; its law of Philosophical Certainty. Human volitions and actions, when purely voluntary and free, can often be computed and foretold with much accuracy, and their moral attitude ascertained and correctly fixed. Indeed, so thorough and satisfactory has been the progress of Science, that we can now calculate exactly the ebb and flow of the page 27 tide, the birth of the young moon, the beginning and ending of an eclipse, the nearest and farthest points in the path of a comet. It has been significantly hinted that could all the antecedents of the leading journal be accurately known, we should be able to foretel every word of every leader, without destroying or disturbing in the least, any ethical condition of those connected with this great instructor of the civilized world. Here, then, is plainly a system of two or rather three kinds of laws, and not of one kind only. 1. A system of necessity in which we are merely passive instruments, and may be said to be as clay in the hands of the potter. In the purely material sphere, and in man's infantile state there is nothing of the nature of a free-agent. Many wonderful things are at the beginning of life done for us, and not by us. 2. A system of acquisition, which by and by grows into or becomes unconscious automatic action, easy habit or second nature. 3. Another system, one of conscious voluntary effort, of self-determination or deliberate preference, attention to duty, intensity of will and fixity of purpose, from which it may be affirmed, that we are as clay in the hands of ourselves. This view, if correct, destroys the extraordinary and erroneous doctrine which affirms that man is a receiver only, a sort of tube and mouth-piece to imagined sprites, as certain dreamy theologians and pseudo-philosophic thinkers teach. Involuntary errors and mistakes, therefore, we should pity or pardon; voluntary conduct only has merit or demerit, and is entitled to praise or blame.

The position here assumed is to some extent strengthened by the Duke of Argyll. This accomplished thinker writes, "There is nothing to object to or deny in the doctrine, that if we knew everything that determines the conduct of a man, we should be able to know what that conduct will be. That is to say, if we knew all the motives which are brought by external things to bear upon his mind, and if we knew all the other motives which that mind evolves out of its own powers, and out of previously acquired materials, to bear upon itself, and if we knew the constitution of that mind so perfectly as to estimate exactly the weight it will allow to all the different motives operating upon it, then we should be page 28 able to predict with certainty the resulting course of conduct. This is true, not only as an abstract conception, but as a matter of experience in the little way towards perfect knowledge along which we can now travel. We can predict conduct with almost perfect certainty when we know character with an equal measure of assurance, and when we know the influences to which that character will be exposed. In proportion as we are sure of character, in the same proportion we are sure of conduct."

who ignorantly, often irreverently and presumptuously, ask the Deity to do for them what they ought to do and might do for themselves by a moderate activity, abnegation, and self-control; who expect, in fact, by some fanciful process, to be good without taking the trouble of doing good. This is futile. Action is the criterion, the blossom and the fruit of true excellence. Man is thus far master of his fate. He may by his nature (not by some imagined "grace") be truthful, just, and kind. We are always anxious to deal leniently with those who have to contend with many perplexing doubts, serious difficulties, "toils obscure," trials and adverse surroundings. But we should think that many religious teachers would permit us to demand, nay, wish us to expect, that they should be living examples of the cardinal virtues and other Christian graces which they sometimes recommend to others.

8. Both Science and Philosophy now, we are happy to think, emphatically refuse to admit that any Church, or order of persons, can "shoot round the corner," as did the Highlander's gun of old. Men have, indeed, been told that sailors have in foreign parts ofttimes "whistled for a wind," and have thought that they brought it; and there are yet well-meaning, sober-minded people who, with rash confidence, solicit the Creator and Upholder of the Universe, for a change of weather, "a fine growing shower," "a nice drying page 29 day," or "a fresh sou'-wester, to waft the laden ships from port." The fierce Tertullian might in his day of light and shadow exclaim,—"when indeed have not droughts been removed by our prayers and fastings!" Assuredly the calm responses of to-day would inquiringly answer,—When, indeed! have they been so removed?

In the last week of August, 1877, it was ordered that prayers should be offered in many of our Churches for fine weather, and it is interesting to note what followed this clerical mandate. In the first week of September, as if in derision of such arrogance, imbecility and error, a stiff, gusty, biting wind came from the north, and snow fell heavily in Scotland and in Wales. "The weather is still unsettled, and to-night," a newspaper correspondent on the 6th of September writes, "rain is falling in torrents, the air being quite chilly, resembling an evening in December rather than September." On the 11th of October we were told, "This morning there was a heavy fall of snow, accompanied by a strong gale of wind in Edinburgh and district. Several peals of thunder were heard in the course of the forenoon. . . . The wind has been from the north-west, and to-night the air is piercingly cold. In several districts the crops are still in a rank state, and, with such a sudden approach of winter, will, in all likelihood, be irretrievably lost."

Again, on the 16th of November it was said—"Very early this morning one of the most terrific storms that have been experienced in this country swept over the north-east of Scotland. At first the wind was from the eastward, but latterly it veered to the south-west, and the rain fell in torrents. In the north-eastern counties, at Caithness, Ross, and Sutherland, the storm seems to have been felt with intense severity. Fields covered with grain were swept clear, and the roofs of hundreds of houses were blown in."

And it was reported of the whole month of November—"This was a month of vast perturbation—cloud, storm, and fatal accidents by land and sea from lightning, tempest, and deluges from rainfall. Atlantic cyclones visited our shores page 30 in rapid succession, and raged with abnormal fury; few days were exempt from their destructive influence; the rainfall was enormous, and the low lands of England were flooded." Were the labours of scientific workers at the Royal Institution, to be visited by similar adverse results, would not some accomplished persons sip their coffee with delight and look happy!—

"Sit piping under budding boughs."

How their eyes would twinkle in imaginary triumph!

Such a melancholy failure as above indicated ought to rebuke religious instructors, and should admonish them by a salutary lesson of experience. Highland lairds and Lowland farmers who have blindly trusted to such broken reeds, random thoughts, and à priori errors, may well be excused for lying helpless and smarting under a sense of heavy losses!^*

"The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,

And these are of them."

Not a little curious is it—as well as instructive—to note, that usually each religious sect or party thinks its own prayers, however extraordinary they may be, and not those of its neighbours, are considerately and indulgently answered by the Deity. But we rejoice that a deaf ear is apparently turned, and that no favourable reply to such conflicting importunities is ever verified in our time. The only question worth raising about the efficacy of entreaty, and which is page 32 entitled to one moment's consideration, is not, Does God hear? but, Does he answer?—a point not to be hastily assumed or lightly taken for granted, especially as it can in most instances be disproved. The reiterated expressions of ill-considered petitions, often the mere routine and shell of custom, the distrust and derangement which naturally follow "asking in vain," deplete our energy, lead to self-made spirit voices and visions, to essences and phantoms sitting on the brain, mental wandering and hysterics, "such stuff as dreams are made of," to vexation of spirit and emptiness of soul.

It is difficult to realize, even in imagination, the advantage and gain there would be were all persons to abstain from petitioning images, mummies, old bones, musty garments, dead saints, and other ancient relics. Strange to think that we have yet in our very midst, flaring mystic lights—old, new, and tinted; blazing candles—thick, thin, long, and short; clouds of incense; tinkling cymbals; absolutions and infatuations which can be considered only as "barren-shine," the symptoms and phantasmagoria of a sickly piety.^*

"What keen religious eyes do they inherit,
That thro' these blinding forms can see the Father!"

Let men, instead thereof, considerately and practically tune their natures in truer accord with God's will as expressed in the Universe. Honest and earnest effort, however feeble, is unfailingly rewarded, and strength is ever given to the humble and rightly turned heart. Man himself closes and opens the door of his heavenly life. The great trust of daily

^* On Sunday, the 1st of June, 1879, we were present at a meeting in a fashionable church near the centre of London, and distinguished by spirited and high-class music. At mid-day, when the sun was bright and the sky was clear, there were some 70 gas jets lighted and 50 candles burning. The candles measured from about one foot and a half to eight feet long, and were proportionably thick. The ostentatious display of costly jewellery by the Reverend, and to us un-Venerable-looking preacher, seemed more than enough to adorn a lunatic Duchess on leave with her keeper! Why should the Church of England be disfigured and disgraced by gaudy millinery, senseless and tawdry finery, absurd and expensive foolery?

page 33 conduct—the realization of duty—which is the highest form and function of human responsibility, is purely personal, and cannot be performed by proxy. One man cannot eat, or sleep, or walk, in room of another; nor can the virtues or vices of one be transferred to another.

We ought carefully to note those conditions which are apparently nothing but subjective results, our own responses to our own prayers; effects upon ourselves wrought by ourselves. Adoration, Praise, and Thanksgiving to God, with an intelligent and devout appreciation of Nature, are the essential elements of a Universal Worship. Aspiration, the ardent desire of what is noble, the persistent longing of the human heart, not supplication, is in conformity with science and the most devout mind. "Not our will, but Thy Will be Done," will be the "cry" of future Saints: or, "may our will always conform to Thine." ^* Then the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, will be more realized, and the heart's trust will be so absolute, that, in the darkest hour of perplexity the highest act of Religion will find expression in the profoundest resignation.

"Could we but hear all nature's voice,
From glow-worm up to sun,
'Twould speak with one concordant sound,
Thy will, O God, be done."

So long, then, as Man has a religious nature, with its crowd of witnesses in the valleys, on the plains, and the hill sides of every country, evidencing to the observant and reflecting traveller the existence of faculties which are as positive and universal as the senses of sight and hearing, or the normal desire for food (and which apparently can never be stamped out), so long will men, women, and children pant for the exercise of worship, for religious guidance and cul-

^* "Thanksgiving is the one religious act which even the most ultra may own as beautiful and fitting. A staunch old Lancashire 'Liberal' was asked, 'Man, do you pray?' He replied, 'Well, I don't know that I do, for I have about all that I want; but I do a bit of thanksgiving now and then.' Perhaps our worship may have to fall back upon thanksgiving altogether, some day."

Rev. Brooke Herford.

page 34 ture. "Some few persons," it has been said, "can live apart from religious institutions; but mankind cannot dispense with religion, and they need it organized into a church." It is probable, however, that the simpler and the grander phases and forms of Faith will not be found to have existed in the past, but are rather to be realized in the future.

The permanent in religion—The Love of God and Man—is the soul's ripe fruitage, the centre of all true religious systems. This is not the equivalent of Superstition, and this will not die of inanition.^* It will express itself in the service of humanity; it will exhibit itself in the recognition by each class of society of its duty to every other class, it will give a death blow to that selfishness which, in complete opposition to the spirit of the Founder of Christianity, has been fostered by nominal followers, who not unfrequently have made Christianity the most egotistic of systems.

To the clergy of our land we would venture to say—"Understand your age and you may lead it. Bear in mind that the people are not made for the Church, but the Church for the people. Abandon any old sacerdotal cries of 'Think as I do, or you are a bad man.' 'Submit, or be Accursed.' Begin by 'posting yourselves up;' be not at peace, rest not, until you have 'set your house in order.' Then neither the

^* A "Free Protestant Church" has recently been opened at Graff Reinet, and at the close of the services several young men were publicly accepted as members of the Church, by affirming their belief, in reply to the following question:—'Do you believe that true religion consists in love to God and love to man, and is it your earnest desire to practise this religion in your daily life?"

page 35 vexed question about 'the Procession of the Holy Ghost,' nor fears of 'light-minded religionists,' nor 'the seething thought of this anxious age,' need give you undue alarm or anxiety. Move forward! Realize 'a spirit of intelligent harmony, with secular thought.' Hold aloft the torch of truth, that its light may illumine the high places of society. Descend with it into the depths of the lowliest retreats where ignorance lurks, where crime burrows, and poverty and misery hide themselves. And take for your motto, the words of our great Milton: 'Who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?'"

10. It is worthy of remark, that there is to man such a thing as a Principle of Certainty; that he has the ability to perceive particular kinds of truths, such as the axioms of mathematics, to be invariably and unalterably true. This is a valuable, although common possession of mankind. But the Infallibility claimed by the Roman Catholic Church in faith, morals, and discipline is not, and cannot be allowed to be, the prerogative or the privilege of any Person, Church, Book, or Assembly. ^* And if man is not infallible, neither is

^* The doctrine of Infallibility to which we take exception, is clearly set forth in the following passage by Cardinal Newman:—

"The Church has the office of teaching, and the matter of that teaching is the body of doctrine, which the Apostles left behind them as her perpetual possession. If a question arises as to what the Apostolic doctrine is on a particular point, she has infallibility promised to her to enable her to answer correctly. And, as by the teaching of the Church is understood, not the teaching of this or that Bishop, but their united voice, and a Council is the form the Church must take, in order that all men may recognize that in fact she is teaching on any point in dispute, so in like manner the Pope must come before us in some special form or posture, if he is to be understood to be exercising his teaching office, and that form is called ex cathedra. . . . He speaks ex cathedrâ, or infallibly, when he speaks, first, as the Universal Teacher; secondly, in the name and with the authority of the Apostles; thirdly, on a point of faith or morals; fourthly, with the purpose of binding every member of the Church to accept and believe his decision."

On the same question Cardinal Manning states:—

"Now it is to be observed:

"1. That the Council declares that the Roman Pontiff, speaking ex cathedrâ, has a Divine assistance which preserves him from error.

"2. That he speaks ex cathedrâ when he speaks under these five conditions (1) As Supreme Teacher (2) to the whole Church. (3) Defining a doctrine (4) to be held by the whole Church (5) in faith and morals,"

page 37 he impeccable. No! Fallibility, frailty, and imperfection are written upon man, and all man's works. Neither in action, any more than in judgment, is he unerring. Any one who carefully and impartially observes mankind may see them to be neither spotless angels nor hideous demons, but beings of various shades of colour (with much of sober gray), capable by nature of knowing and doing what is to them intentionally right or consciously wrong, at the same time, greatly dependent upon many things to them almost purely accidental—such as birth, climate, food, family life, education, society, business, and profession. On taking a somewhat extended view, all may be thought to be doing about as well as can reasonably be expected; most of them, let us rejoice, being borne up and cheered onward by the hope of "better times," and the idea of indefinite improvability. It is an obvious and irrefragable fact that all men are more or less fallible and slanting, untrue to the perpendicular, and that all Religious Organizations have in their day and generation made mistakes. Even the authorized version of the Bible, which is at the very foundation of the Christian Religion as popularly accepted, is at present undergoing revision and correction; and the Rubrics and the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, and the Confession of Faith of the Scottish Establishment may be expected in due time to be deprived of their more repugnant features, or, what is, perhaps, far better, seen to be hindrances to progress, antiquated stumbling-blocks, which it is now high time to abolish, and bury for ever out of sight.

There are yet, unfortunately, noisy ones in Christendom, who wander hither and thither, proclaiming that "The Bible, and the Bible only, is the religion of Protestants." And there are others less noisy, but more crafty and resolute—with vast spiritual pretensions—who demand that the Bible plus Traditions are needed to make dogmas authoritative. But there is a quickly growing party which we heartily welcome—because more logical than either of these—who unanswerably urge that the Bible, when minus much of itself, is fit for daily reading in the family and in the schoolroom, is in accord with a proper decency of manners, and in agreement with good sense. In all ultimate research in Religion, however, that only which is seen by each person to be good and true ought to be considered binding, and personally regulating to him.

Diverging for a moment, it gives us pleasure, having freely animadverted on the untenable claim of Infallibility made by the Church of Rome, to recognize the large amount of liberty now conceded to members of her communion in relation to some of the most important themes that can engage the attention of a thoughtful mind. While, indeed, on the one hand, the distinctive doctrines of that Church are defined and guarded by its asserted Infallibility, yet, on the other, there remains (if we may trust the subjoined statement from the pen of an enlightened Roman Catholic periodical) a wide margin, in fact, a vast domain, which the cultured intellect may freely explore, following wherever truth shall lead, without fear, molestation, or censure. These are remarkable words:—"The Catholic Church has guaranteed the rights of intellect, and has done great things to preserve them intact. . . . Whether God exists, whether the Infinite is knowable, whether there is a cause of all things, whether the material world has been created, whether any definitions of matter will allow it to be the sole and sufficient cause of life, sensation, and intelligence; whether the soul of man is immortal, whether the pursuing of our own eternal happiness can be called selfish—all these questions, according to the philosophy of the Church, are under the jurisdiction of reason, are strictly scientific, and may and ought to be treated in a scientific page 39 manner. It is open to any man who has the leisure and the necessary talent, to take them up, investigate them, and use all his experience and intelligence in their solution. The answers obtained may be tested, compared, sought after by other and newer methods, defended by reason, without the interpolation of any emotion whatever. They may be approached from above or below, and philosophy may take its beginning in the science of cosmology, no less than in the science of logic. . . . This is the concurrent teaching of all the Catholic schools, that, at the very least, it may be followed without censure attaching to any one, not even from the Holy Office."—(Dublin Review, Jan. 1876, pp. 448-9.)

Now these are noble thoughts, well and nobly expressed, and, unless we are greatly mistaken, the moral of them is, that even Protestant Orthodoxy, in its vast variety, has yet something it may learn from Roman Catholic teaching. At all events, we may affirm that these conditions are absolutely necessary for the permanent existence of the Church of the Future.

But to resume. The Churches are entering upon a new career. Already a fresh leaf has been turned, and another chapter commenced in our religious history and life. This chapter will, we may hope and expect, judiciously exclude many errors "born to die," and dogmas well known to rest upon a slippery and dangerous slope. There are yet, curiously and unfortunately, we think, persons who seem to relish a little fog in philosophy, difficulty in religion, and contradiction in theology. They have a strange predilection for a wintry gleam of perplexing opinions, a raging, tempestuous sea, with rocks and quicksands on either side.

Let us then, at this stage, suggest for calm consideration and discussion the idea of a National Church resting upon this grand and simple basis:—A belief in the Existence of God and in the Religious Nature of Man; and with the two great Commandments, the Love of God and the Love of Man, as the condition of Membership, or the regulative principles of Church-life. These we may consider as cardinal and catholic articles of a Christian Creed, and essential to the very existence of a Church.

A Church distinguished by good will to man, as man, and its cultivated leaders turning affectionately towards "pale misery," rather than concerning themselves so much about the gold ring and sumptuous fare; a Church, not timidly, fretfully, or sullenly lagging behind the world of Secular Thought; but in accord with the truths common to many religious systems, gladly recognizing on behalf of each one within its pale, not only the sinlessness of free and fearless inquiry, but the right and duty of full and fair critical research, boldly refusing to admit whatever is unreasonable, and demanding from each member

"To thine own self be true"—

What might we not naturally expect from a Church like this? It would be thoroughly and intensely practical. Such an associated religious body, with its considerate, earnest, educated, and loving workers, would, by efficient organization, soon make its benign influence felt and seen in every street, court, and alley of this immense metropolis, and of all our great cities.

Knowing how much the higher conditions of human beings are dependent upon correct moral training in infancy, upon thorough intellectual culture, and the requirements of, at all events, a moderate decency in domestic arrangements, there is presented in London, and every large town in England, an ample field of useful and delightful employment to multitudes of the educated and refined classes who have at pre- page 41 sent much difficulty in "killing time." Thus, all neglected children, and all bent down by the iron grasp of poverty and chilled by the icy touch of age, might be washed and made clean, warmed, clothed, fed, and comfortably housed. This, in a city where thousands of persons are burdened with the plethora of superabundant wealth, is surely not too much to demand of a Church organized for the pure and elevating worship of God. The feverish longing for periodical excitement, so intense amongst the upper classes, would ere long be calmed, the frivolous and amusing eccentricities of dress be restrained, manners become more sincere, and the wretched insipidity of dining-room and drawing-room conversation would naturally be superseded by higher aims and a nobler tone. Then the painful sense of ennui and mental vacuity would be exchanged for the healthful glow of moral vigour, and many angelic natures, by the daily exercise of "the charities which soothe, and heal, and bless," would bask in the divine beatitudes of benevolence, and be rewarded by a constant and increasing joy.

The extravagancies of ecclesiastical dress, and the antic gesticulations which so prevail in many of our Churches, and which are so prominent in some modern developments of Ritual, are not altogether harmless. Rather, we should say, they must be actively mischievous. As little can we consider that the flagrant mistakes in Hymns and Litanies are rendered more endurable by being chanted and intoned, and that the blunders in many sermons become less nonsensical and injurious when with lengthened visage they are confidently spoken in a sepulchral tone. We hope to be pardoned the observation, that "the delivery"—as it is termed, of our ecclesiastical instructors—is as susceptible of improvement as their Theology and Philosophy. The Scriptures, for example, are in large measure highly dramatic, and obviously require the finest and most varied elocution. They are usually read with a dull, pompous solemnity, or a lifeless drawl, often inevitably producing a well known "sleepy-distemper." In reference to this too common evil The Times thus writes:—"Enter church after church in the Metropolis, or elsewhere, and you shall hear the prayers read by a machine, page 42 and the sermon read by a drone. The supplications are solemn without being serious, the exhortations have only that gravity which conduces to sleep. The one is a pious form, the other an unpleasant necessity."

Carefully avoid any ultra-placid, wrapt-consciousness, in self, a too frequent result of overmuch study and a solitary life. Eschew 'the rigid feature,' and the much starched cambric. Do not assume the abstracted, murky, cloistered look, so repellent to the poor; or the ungenial and unsocial 'stand well back for I am holier than thou' attitude, which so frequently renders all friendly intercourse and well meant visits, not only unwelcome, but often worse than useless. Rather, we submit, be distinguished by cheerfulness, gentleness, impartiality, consistency,—'let your light so shine before men that they may see your Good Works,' may by ample experience test and approve of them, and desire to do likewise."

II. May it not seriously be asked,—How shall we account for the continued and frequent use of most barbaric symbols in many of our churches and chapels, and this towards the end of the xixth century? What would be thought of a page 43 Heathen coming to a Christian country, and telling of his Deity flying in the air, talking with one man in a garden, wrestling with another, and smelling the sweet savour of an offering? What would be further thought, if he told, as a true story, that his Deity began to make the world on a Sunday, that he kept at work every day for nearly a week, then finding what had been accomplished was satisfactory, took a holiday, and rested on Saturday. That he crowned this great work by creating one man and woman "very good," although with imperfection, and that (as a not unlikely consequence) they blundered, and were held to be "wholly defiled," "made opposite to all good," and "wholly inclined to all evil." Their numerous progeny were thereby not only fully enabled to do actual sin (a thing imaginable and realizable as fact), but also held guilty for a supposed transgression committed by their ancestors, and tainted with original—prior to birth—sin (a misnomer and thing impossible).

Suppose, the Heathen were to continue, that this awkward state of things, this moral confusion and chaos at the commencement of the human race was not attempted to be improved by creating another pair of beings with some modification in their nature, and by presenting fruit less tempting, and imposing results less disastrous; further, that there existed a large majority of persons called the "non-elect," of whose pre-ordained condition it was affirmed, "God was pleased, according to his will and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to his own glory" and in display of "his sovereign power" to be damned—a decree including young and old (not even exempting infants)—who are to be burned for ever. Surely, it requires no very vivid imagination to conceive that, at this point, the Heathen himself would start back amazed at the description of Deity he had given, and exclaim, if these things be true, then is mortal man "more just than God;" man is more kind than his Maker! Notions so horrific are sufficient to banish from the human heart "the longing after immortality," were the total paralysis and ruin of the religious sentiment possible. Nothing might be referred to by him about a page 44 Devil, as the English people prefer to allow that nonentity or now sleeping entity, with sundry other kindred matters, to lie quietly at rest.

Let us imagine that this occurred at some crowded meeting at Exeter Hall, with a Dignitary in the chair. The Heathen, after delivering his long address, would probably with much gravity be informed, there was nothing new or strange in anything which had been related, as in this, the greatest and most enlightened country in the world, there were thousands of professing Christians who affirmed of their God what the Pagan had declared of his Deity.

No wonder that the religious pulse of England is spasmodic! No wonder that a numbness prevails amongst the thoughtful, well-to-do, and independent working classes, that strong common-sense people stand aghast, that good men are ashamed, and pious souls in revolt!

So offensive and awful to a cultivated, sympathetic, and well-balanced mind are torture and revenge, that, many excellent persons would prefer annihilation (and their preference is justifiable) to a so-called heaven in which there would exist a distinct perpetual consciousness of one human creature being kept in torment for ever. Nay, the Heathen we have introduced might in the flow and glow of his emotions, in the wealth of his affectionate nature, feel assured, and in his earnest cogitations reasonably conclude, that Her Majesty the Queen of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Cardinal of Westminster, and all the members of the Anti-Vivisection Society would decline to choose for themselves a future-life with the inevitable, but sad condition, that even a Kitten (a sentient creature now protected by British Law) should be put to a slow-fire, and its cries of anguish to resound in the echoing corridor and whispering gallery of every human consciousness during eternity. With such a fatal obstacle to human happiness, 'resonant hallelujahs' and the 'rapture of satisfaction' would be impossible! Any idea of 'beatific vision' and 'ceaseless psalmody' would be a mockery! It is, we trust, not too much to say that cruel Calvinism is dis- page 45 appearing in England, and in Scotland too. "It has taken a long time for the new wine to burst the stout old bottles, but the bursting has come at last!"

How will the pulpit adapt itself to these altered circumstances, for, adaptation there must be, unless it abrogates its function as a living power, and subsides into a mere fossil? Will instructed, thinking men in the closing years of the nineteenth century, listen placidly, while the theology of the sixteenth is expounded for their benefit? As reasonably might you offer, as Mr. Froude rather startingly puts it—"well-watered chaff to the giant dray horse."

But let us not be misunderstood. It is far from our purpose, and would, in fact, contradict our opening remarks, to imply that the religious life of our country is incurably diseased. On the contrary, it is, we believe, sound at heart, page 46 though not, at this moment, in robust and perfect health. Beneath the aberrations and eccentricities which disfigure the religious sentiment of the day, it is yet pervaded by an earnestness of intention, by a spirit of reverence for things deemed sacred, and especially by a conviction of the importance of speculative truth, which is so justly opposed to a barren, blank indifferentism—the caricature of genuine philosophy, and the offspring of universal scepticism.

12. Most persons will readily acknowledge that there is ample room for improvement in the method and order, as well as in the spirit and tone, of public worship in this country. The accompanying scheme offers suggestion for comment in this direction.

The ideal of a religious service in agreement with modern science and philosophy, and in harmony with the feeling of reflective and devout minds, can be obtained only from a wide induction of opinions, and the collation of numerous and varied experiences. This subject has engaged the attention of many thoughtful persons who have felt the jar and strain of much that is commonly called public worship.

It may be assumed as a general principle that everything connected with public worship should contribute towards the expression and the strengthening of devout and elevating feeling. The idea is not a novel one to religious bodies, though it is not often carried out with sufficient care and consistency. Happily, as to methods, it is not necessary to lay down altogether new lines of religious observance. Indeed, the scheme

^* "Spiritual Conferences," pp. 42, 43.

page 48 here offered might be readily adapted to the order of many existing services.

Religious services should be homogeneous, and so free from distracting and alien associations, that every part and circumstance of them shall tend to keep their main object steadily in view. To the eye, therefore, as well as to the ear, nothing should present itself in a place of worship that does not contribute to the objects desired. By this law may be determined the kind of building, the style of Art-representation, and the character of the music that should be employed. The language of Art is simple, impressive, and universally intelligible; hence its value as the exponent and ally of religious feeling. The services are apt to become hard and cold in which Art is not made an important medium of expression.

As to the mode of individual devotion in a congregation, the suggested Order of Service combines the three well understood forms. It is believed that there would be no insuperable difficulty in the way of arranging and constructing two sorts of Service;—one, the chief aim of which should be Devotion, and the other more adapted to convey Intellectual and Moral instruction. With some such arrangement for morning and evening exercises and discourses, a wider range and liberty of topic and mode of illustration and discussion than seem at present possible, or perhaps desirable, would probably follow.

We are far from assuming that the pulpit and the professor's desk are the only or the chief sources of moral influence and religious instruction. The pulpit for addresses to the people has long been an institution of the Church; it has been associated with public worship, and has done much for the improvement of mankind. For those who have little leisure, it might give the substance of a volume within the limits of a discourse. On the stage, at the bar, in the Houses of Parliament, the living voice has always possessed a special charm distinct from that of the silent book, however elegant and correct. More education and growing refinement will not abolish the influence of oral teaching; they will rather elevate page 49 its tone, and widen its empire. For reasons such as these we assume the continuance of the pulpit, and the enduring usefulness of the venerable usage that brings men and women together in solemn assemblage, for mutual encouragement in well doing and uttering devout aspirations fitly conceived and worthily expressed. These are reasons among many that might be cited for retaining and using the pulpit or the platform as an auxiliary to worship and the diffusion of popular instruction.

It should also be considered whether in a Church like that proposed, and which might be opened daily like churches on the Continent, there should not be short week-day services, and simple devotional exercises every morning and evening, besides classes throughout the week, for which adequate provision could be made in the construction of the building. It seems to many a sad waste of valuable opportunities that not a few costly and noble ecclesiastical edifices should be in use only a few hours in the week. The members of a living, earnest, and truly Catholic Church awake to the necessity of aiding the religious development, the moral and intellectual improvement, and the æsthetic tastes of the general body, would be careful to relieve the dreary solitude within the walls of the material structure during the six days out of the seven. This, perhaps, might be best accomplished by providing lectures on scientific and kindred subjects, to be delivered by competent teachers, which should set forth the power, wisdom, and goodness so manifestly displayed in the majesty of the heavens and the beauty of the earth. Such addresses would be made additionally attractive and useful if accompanied by suitable music, which might be rendered in a manner both simple and grand. Experience has proved that large audiences readily feel the elevating power of music, and that the mental relief which it gives need not be confounded with the gratification of a mere craving for excitement.

To associate the idea of Divine Worship with the highest well being of man, in everything that is helpful towards his social, intellectual, moral, and spiritual elevation, and to do page 50 this independently of all merely sectarian influences, and in such modes as may attract the interest of those persons in every class, who care more for religious culture than for dividing names and stereotyped creeds, is quite in agreement with the spirit and manner of the best modern thought.

It has appeared to the compilers of the accompanying Order of Service, that these views can at present be best carried out by means of a new and a free pulpit, and by the erection and maintenance of a grand and really Catholic Metropolitan Church, wherein no object should be sought in its teachings and devotions but the crowning Christ-like end of the whole life's dedication to the Divine One, evinced in the love of Him, and in the faithful service of man.