Establishment, situate in a region which few will find it difficult to identify. He entered the holy structure; he took his seat on the right of the aisle; he was ordered off, monastically, to a position not intruded upon by ladies or girls. There were masculine and feminine divisions which he was compelled to respect-Greek or Roman as the case might be. Mothers separated from their sons, fathers from their daughters, husbands from their wives, brothers from their sisters, all betokened that the Church in whose being we live, with the sacred beliefs belonging to it, must be pulled down by a new order of ascetics, whose mortifications are the mummeries of Belphegor. Still the narrative is not complete. Two clergymen, lawfully ordained, entered: they were accompanied by a lad, swinging a ridiculous tin apparatus styled a censer. One of the ministering officials was clad in a Fakir costume of green and yellow baize; the other wore simply a green bellpull over a white surplice. Both officiated by turns. The first, with his back towards the congregation, drawled forth prayers, psalms, and chapters, in a tone which rendered them utterly unintelligible, being neither reading nor chanting; his boy, meanwhile, swung the offensive pot under the noses of the pastor and the public, until the Master of these peculiar ceremonies flung off his Mexican attire, and appeared in the undignified simplicity of a dimity dressing-gown, with green trimmings and a cotton girdle."

Then follows the usual rhetoric about "swindlers of the religious body," "men who are false to their faith and their oaths," "the purity of the English Protestant Establishment," "traitors, guilty of evasion, and unworthy servants of their Master," "ritual tricks," "wearing the tatters of a Mesopotamian monk," "the rotten lumber and cobwebs of obsolete ceremony;" "Are we always to be pestered without any authority to suppress the nuisance, with these monkish experimentalists, who lay stress upon muttering with their backs to the people; who talk of more frequent fasts; who despise the common prayer; who burn tapers at noon-day; who have crosses embroidered on their surplices; who mingle green and yellow with their University colours; and whose whole duty on earth appears to be the treating of the feelings of the rest of the community with defiance?" In fact the whole article looks like a diabolical attempt to stir up riots against all churches where the sexes are separated and Catholic ritual is used. And this is the party with respect to which one of its leaders lately declared that " no man could be a good Churchman" unless he belonged to it.

Our ideas of good Churchmanship are not quite the same as Lord Robert Cecil's. For ourselves we have no great faith in any political party; and we believe it will be an evil day for the Church of England when she brings the Ark of GOD into the arena of political strife. The political votes of Churchmen are, of course, a trust; but surely it is their bounden duty to record them in favour of those who hold the Catholic Faith, whatever be the colour of their political ensign. The Church is neither Whig nor Tory.

She is higher and deeper than both, and she cannot identify herself with either without inflicting a grievous wound upon herself.1 Liberalism is advancing, and cannot be stopped by a temporary majority in Parliament, any more than the course of time can be stopped by arresting the hands of a clock. But though Liberalism cannot be stopped, it may be providentially controlled and moulded by the sagacity of Catholic statesmen; and those alone can claim that title, who, in the language of M. Guizot's suggestive volume, "at the same time profess fully the Christian Faith and accept with sincerity the tests of Liberty."

THE RE-UNION OF CHRISTENDOM.

Sermons on the Re-union of Christendom. By Members of the Roman Catholic, Oriental, and Anglican Communions. London: Printed for Certain Members of the Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom, by J. Masters and Son.

THE publication of this volume forms an epoch in the Church revival of our generation, sufficiently important to demand special recognition.

In the Preface, bearing the initials "F. G. L.," we have an account of the origin and growth of the "Association for Promoting the Union of Christendom," which may well be put on record.

"The Association was originated in the year 1857. On the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, certain Roman Catholics, Greeks, and Anglicans met in the parish of S. Clement Danes, Strand, in the City of Westminster, having that morning previously, at their respective altars, asked Almighty GoD's blessing upon their contemplated plans, and, after duly arranging its organization and drawing up the well-known paper of the Association, thirty-four persons formally enrolled themselves members. A dignitary of the Scottish Episcopal Church' was in the chair. The following resolution was moved by a distinguished Roman Catholic layman, seconded by a well-known Clergyman of the Church of England, supported by members of the Greek Church and others, and was unanimously adopted:

"That a Society, to be called the Association for Promoting the Unity of Christendom, be now formed, for united prayer that Visible

1 Since writing the above, we have read with pleasure and thankfulness the wise and earnest protest of the learned Bishop of Ely against the suicidal policy which would ally the Church with either of the two great political parties in the State. She is all the more likely to get justice from both by refusing to be the instrument or the stepping-stone to power of either.

Unity may

be restored to Christendom; and that the Paper now before this meeting be sanctioned, printed and circulated, as the basis upon which this Society desires to act.'

"Since that day the Association has steadily increased, as will be seen from the following statement :

"On September 8, 1858, a year after its formation, there

had enrolled themselves members.

"On Sept. 8, 1859 (in addition) .

1860

675

833

1060

Thus making a total of

"Of these the great majority are members of the Church of England, but there are nearly a thousand belonging to the Latin Communion, and about three hundred members of the Eastern Church. The paper of the Association has been distributed far and wide; about thirtynine thousand copies in English having been already distributed. It has been translated into Latin, French, Greek, and Italian, and sent abroad in various ways and by different channels. Local secretaries, both at home and in foreign countries, are being increased, and many correspondents are labouring energetically, and with considerable success, in the cause. The Association has been approved in the highest ecclesiastical quarters, both amongst Latins, Anglicans, and Greeks. The Holy Father gave his blessing to the scheme when first started, and repeated that blessing with a direct and kindly commendation to one of the English secretaries, who was more recently granted the honour of a special interview. The Ex-Patriarch of Constantinople and other Eastern Prelates have approved of the Association, and so likewise have several Bishops, both Anglican and Roman Catholic, in England, Ireland, and Scotland, as well as on the Continent and in America. And no wonder, for the work proposed is simply to pray for the restoration of visible Unity to Christendom, and to ask continually for the blessings of peace."-Pp. x.-xiii.

It is certainly a remarkable sign of the times that this association has accomplished such a measure of success as has just been described. Whatever effect the rescript recently issued from the Vatican may have in withdrawing members of the Roman Communion from outward alliance, it is a fact not without value, that so many Roman Catholics, clergy and laity, have cared to avow their desire for Unity and contemplate the possibility of it, in any way, other than that of submission to the Pope.

Of Orientals, acquaintance with the West, and specially with England, was scarcely to be expected; but, nevertheless, there are many quarters of the East and North, where better prospects for the future may be entertained.

For the present we shall content ourselves with making three extracts, from Roman, Greek, and Anglican authors respectively, which indicate the growth of a healthy feeling, that a few years since could scarcely be said to exist.

The first contains what strikes us to be a remarkably fair statement of the condition of Christendom, as drawn from the Roman side.

"Eighteen centuries have rolled by, and tell me, brethren, if the travail of the Redeemer's soul is satisfied, if the Divine thirst of Calvary is slaked? Of the populations of the earth, a full two-thirds lies without the utmost limits of nominal Christianity; and of the remaining third, what judgment must be given? Tested, I do not say by the counsels of perfection, or the new law of the beatitudes, but by the barest letter of the decalogue, can it claim to be Christian, except in form and name? The poems, the proverbs, the satires of heathen antiquity, find their almost literal fulfilment in the society of modern Christendom. If we wish to realise the darkest pictures left us of Rome or Athens, we need only consult the statistics of London, Paris, and Vienna. Certain forms of vice, once openly proclaimed, are now compelled to hide themselves; certain kinds of cruelty, a greater civilization has suppressed; many virtues are practised by the few, and praised by the many, which then were scarcely dreamed of. When to this we add, that Christian sentiment has thrown a tinge of poetry or romance over the higher literature of modern Europe, and has elevated the position of women, we have pretty well exhausted the visible effects of the Incarnation. The civilized world is Christian, or at least it is christened, but it is unconverted still. Now I conceive that this is not at all the result we should have been inclined to anticipate, whether from the nature of the case, or from the language of inspired prophecy. But that after the Gospel has been preached for eighteen hundred years, it should be accepted by a bare third of mankind, and produce so little effect where it is accepted, is a phenomenon which at least demands explanation. Many explanations, more or less probable, may be given; on one only, which may claim an exceptional, if not exclusive, importance, do I purpose dwelling now. "The words of our LORD's great Eucharistic intercession, four times solemnly repeated, that they may be One,' with the reason twice repeated, that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me,' point to the visible unity of this Church as the standing evidence to the truth of His revelation. The words of CHRIST fail not. The Catholic Church is, and ever has been One. But I am concerned here, not with dogmatic verities, but outward facts. The Church is One, but the unity of Christendom is broken. Some eight centuries ago, the Oriental communions separated themselves from the West; in the sixteenth century the West itself became divided, when the Church of England and other religious communities renounced allegiance to the Holy See. Since that period, not to dwell here on the subdivisions of the third portion, Christendom has presented the spectacle of three great bodies at enmity with each other. The Latin Church, claiming exclusive possession of the Catholic name, and the infallible teaching of the HOLY GHOST, retains more than half the Christian populations. The Eastern Commu

nions contain almost seventy millions more, and the separated Christian bodies divide the remainder among them. I am not now saying who is right or who is wrong in the matter. Take which view you will, the fact of division is a grievous scandal and must involve somewhere grievous sin. The energies which should be expended on a common crusade against heathenism without, and corruptions within, are wasted on mutual recriminations and internecine strife. The old proverb is revived, and men say, in mockery, or in sorrow, or in contempt, as the case may be, See how these Christians hate one another.' The heathen world, marking these divisions among those who preach to them the Gospel of JESUS, do not believe that GOD has sent Him. The Christian world, marking them also, mistrusts His message and rejects His law. And every portion of Christendom, whether regarded as within or without the visible fold of the Church, loses many elements of strength. An ingenious critic, who occupies a position external to all the principal Christian bodies, has traced in the three friends of Job, their prophetic prototypes. In the one who relies chiefly on authority, he recognises the clear dogmatic utterance of the Roman Church; in him who appeals to antiquity, the Oriental claims to an unbroken tradition of doctrine and ritual from the Apostolic age; while the third, who bases his arguments on human reason, is taken to symbolize the Protestant spirit both within and without the English Church.

"Without at all pledging myself to the writer's theory, still less to the deduction he has drawn from it, I certainly think he has indicated with sufficient correctness, the three main tendencies of different portions of Christendom. None will deny that Rome speaks as one having authority,' but it may be said, that the very consciousness of that authority, is apt to make her needlessly impatient of traditional restraints, and somewhat intolerant of the legitimate rights of the human intellect. Oriental conservatism is notorious, and while valuable in many ways, is carried out with a rigour and a minuteness, which seems almost to ignore the many requirements of time and circumstance, and the abiding presence of the HOLY GHOST. It is the special boast of those who call themselves Protestants, to receive no doctrine which is not contained in the Scriptures as interpreted by themselves; while an influential section of them in England and Germany, put the Scriptures also into the crucible, and will accept no revelation which is more than the echo of what reason had surmised if it could not prove. 'Christianity is old as the creation,' is the watchword of their creed. The Anglican Church may have little sympathy with such views, but in her present separated position, she is almost powerless to control or correct them.

"It is obvious then to mark certain benefits which would accrue from Re-union to the different parts of the Christian body. Anglicanism, without losing its national character, or its heritage of independent thought, would acquire fresh strength for its supernatural mission in teaching the complete Christian dogma, and ministering in their fulness the sacraments of grace. The Oriental Churches, while still clinging to their time-honoured traditions, would learn to temper the rigidity of a somewhat antiquarian spirit, by a due regard for altered circumstances,