Were it not for this deadly sin, there would be none of those religious dissensions and theological wranglings that wound the Saviour in the house of his friends. One fold would embrace, and one Shepherd tend, the whole Christian family, whereas this first-born child of Hell has set brother against brother, and made the Christian family the prey of every evil passion.

Pride has brought about every separation from the faith established by Christ and His Apostles, and pride continues to this day as productive of religious differences as in the ages of the early heresies; these heresies, like untimely fruit, drop off and perish one by one, only, however, to manure the ground that produces an ever-recurring crop from this "root of bitterness."

It could scarcely be otherwise in this sinful world. "By this sin the angels fell," and by this sin they ever seek the ruin of the human race; especially are the young, to whom their "little learning" is only too dangerous, liable to be betrayed into misbelief by the natural conceit common to their years. To differ from their tutors on the most vital subjects, and take up with new principles because they are advocated by certain ambitious and daring thinkers, is a temptation few clever young men can resist; they learned what religion they had from their fathers and mothers, and their highest authorities were perhaps illiterate and self-constituted ministers or teachers. In after-life their reading and study make them view with little respect the antiquated theology in which they discover so many imperfections that they, in accordance with the spirit of the age, look about them for a more intellectual and "advanced" school of thought. There is nothing really to hinder them from thinking this course imperative on them as conscientious and

thoughtful men. They have no settled creed, their teachers differ among themselves as to what is orthodoxy and what is not; without dogma or articles of faith, they are like a vineyard without a hedge; it would be strange if Satan neglected to rob them of the shreds of Christianity left to them. Pride whispers, "Be original, be singular, be untrammelled!" And their own consciences, when interrogated, reply, "Why not?" Who can blame them? They are at least as much at liberty to make their own religion for themselves as the fathers of your particular sect, whether Luther, Calvin, Knox, Cranmer, Owen, or Bunyan, were to make one for you; and you have no more right on your own principles to blame the young men, than you have to blame the "reformers" to whom you owe your religious existence. Indeed, they would be acting contrary to the express principles you had inculcated in them from their infancy, if they received any portion of their belief on Authority, or submitted to any dogma or article of religion they had not framed for themselves.

Under these circumstances, then, Dr. Smith acted consistently when he went into his students' rooms, and, glancing at their books, pretended not to notice the heretical works they so much affected. How could he take them to task? Where is our creed? they would have demanded. To what are we bound? they would have inquired. Had he replied, The Bible is our rule of faith; they would have declared it was equally theirs, and deprecated any idea of acting contrary to it. But he was too wise to do anything of the kind, as he saw such an argument would have been as illogical as ineffectual. So he winked at their proceedings, and left their theological education in the hands of the master spirits of the college,

whom all the rest were certain to imitate and be governed by. His own divinity classes were attended, but were the contempt of the house. They had refused to be dogmatized to by the lights of the denomination and the fathers of the sect, they were not going to accept a creed ready-made on the premises from the Principal of the College. They thought they could beat him at creed-making, and have the credit of the production.

The worst feature about these young men was that they were “trimmers," that is, they cut down their creed to suit the views of any congregation they had to minister to,—though, as their belief was already reduced to a minimum, perhaps the term was in their case scarcely applicable. They dealt in negations largely, as might be expected from their admiration for German theology; many of them learned German for the sake of its theological literature.

They affected poetry considerably, for it helped them to clothe their ideas in pretty language, which was very important to them, as they had to get their living purely by their preaching.

Preaching was all their aim; they voted the devotional part of the services a terrible bore, and sadly deplored the unwillingness of the congregations to put up with a Liturgy; it was the sermon they were paid for, it was the sermon the people had come to hear; still they must throw in two extempore prayers in each service, one of five minutes and the other from fifteen to twenty minutes in duration. The opening prayer was a short matter and easily got over; but the long prayer, which had to include everything the congregation was considered either to want or to be thinking about, was no easy task. They could not do as the Boanerges men did, roam from Dan to Beer

sheba in their prayers, picking up anything that came in their way to tell the Almighty about, or start on a vague praying expedition of half an hour expecting, like Mr. Micawber, for "something to turn up." They could not preach to God or give him a summary of the week's news after a series of "Thou knowest, Lord," as some preachers did when they wanted to express their opinion on the events of the day. This would have been an insult to the Supreme Being, to whom they were at least respectful and reverent. No; they had to compose a real essay, and clothe it in Scriptural language, with a slight dash of the Book of Common Prayer about it, and with as much of the devotional element as their arctic souls were capable of.

Now this devotional essay was no easy thing to extemporize; and as they were expected to pray with their eyes shut, or open only towards the ceiling, as if looking to see that their weak petitions struggled through it, they could not make use of notes, as they did in their sermons, and were continually on thorns lest their ill-arranged or hastily-worded prayers should ́spoil the effect of them. One young divine declared the nervous state he got into when hatching his public . prayers always interfered with his H's, especially if he got excited. So they all deplored the want of a prayer-book, but the congregations would not hear of any such thing.

Praying in public is the dissenting layman's safety valve; it is the readiest way he has of letting his brethren know his opinion on any matter; here he can lash the minister's faults or negligences, or gently touch him up on any of his weak points, or metaphorically pat him on the back if he has been good; he can scold his neighbours, or abuse his enemies, or

let off any superabundant piety in which he may have been indulging; so that it is utterly unlikely Dissent will come to pray by book. The Broad Church Bunyan men detested this sort of thing, and deplored it as a blot on their otherwise perfect system.

CHAPTER XV.

THE BUNYAN TEACHING.

THIS is the age of improvement, development, change. Fifty years ago everything was more steady-going and settled than now. Of all things that have changed, developed, or broken up and re-appeared in another form, what are known as Nonconforming principles in England have suffered most.

The Dissenters of to-day would not be recognized by their ancestors; and though the old doctrines still live in back streets and villages, and flourish in dingy Salems and Zions, their modern opponents of the New School are rapidly cutting them out, and the intelligent modern Dissenter does not recognize the legitimate descendants of the "old faith," that arose in the seventeenth century.

The Catholic is proud of his religious ancestry, and boasts of the long line of the Fathers who have handed down his faith. Your modern Dissenter would be offended if you connected him with the Puritans, and disclaims all connexion with Praise-God-Barebones, or Obadiah Bind-their-kings-in-chains-and-their-nobles-inlinks-of-iron. He professes to believe that the Reformation was the work of God; that till it took place