B

command a listening people. A ministry to the masses will always control the masses. Do we mourn that the narrowness of our sphere does not correspond to the greatness of our claim? Do we blush that with the primitive order we have so little of the primitive success among the poor? Do we search for a link which will bind us not to a class but to mankind? We will find it, not in our modern expedients, but in God's own institution. The ordained ambassadors of heaven are the appointed agencies to connect the people and the Church. Nor need they pervert their divine function by degrading themselves into charlatans. The tricks of the lecturer, and the machinery of the revivalist soon exhaust and defeat themselves. A Gospel properly proclaimed is its own attraction. It appeals to man's deepest wants. It has the strongest possible hold on human nature. It is exhaustless in its themes, and universal in its application. Popular sky-rockets after a sudden flash and noise, leave a deeper darkness. The great sun, still, and bright, and bounteous, shines, the source of light and life forever. What the Church wants, to fulfil her entire mission, is a clergy, educated, consecrated, anointed by the Holy Ghost, prepared to address all classes of mankind, qualified to instruct and to convert, and who by the power of the Pulpit shall find their way to the hearts and homes of the people.

Now, if these views are sound, we perceive how hard it is to provide a ministry, particularly required by this rapid, sensational, practical age. No body of men in the world more commands our respect than our theological instructors, and no body of men more excites our sympathy. If piety, and learning, and ability could accomplish their object this generation and this country would not be mourning over the distance of the Church from the masses. Nor are the clergy to be sternly censured. As a rule, no class in the community are so pure, so elevated, and so accomplished. Neither are our theological students to be depreciated. In gifts, and culture they are perhaps superior to the average youth who devote themselves to the legal and medical professions. We are all really victims of circumstances which we can deplore, and yet do not amend.

Let us confine ourselves to the consideration of a particular case. Here is a graduate of a college who, after years of study, passes into the world crowned with academic honors. A brilliant career

opens to his ambition. He sincerely renounces the glitter of earth for a call from heaven. He feels in his own heart the peace, the joy, the hope of the Gospel, and is accepted by the Church to declare to others the Salvation which he esteems in himself an immortal gift. He passes into a Theological Seminary and for three years prepares to discharge his great commission. Here he finds every help in the instruction and in the example of his Professors. The spirit of the place is favorable to acquisition. But is it favorable to discipline? Is it favorable to piety? Is it favorable to manliness? Is it favorable to obtain the tact, the enterprise, the courage necessary to a successful prosecution of the ministerial work in such an age, and in such a country? With what severe labors the mechanic is developed in muscle and perfected in skill! With what watchings, and drillings, and exercises the cadet is prepared for campaigns and battles! With what self-denials and crucifixions the Romish Priest is trained for warfare in the great Romish army! How easy for the Theological School to degenerate into a mere cloister of learned leisure, and if near our great metropolis, how subtle and how multiplied the attractions of concert, and opera, and theatre; and how easy for the glittering charms of even lawful and refined pleasure to relax the spiritual life and reduce the clerical vocation in the estimation of the student and of the world, to the level of a mere secular profession! How great the temptation then to be planning even within the walls sacred to divine instruction, for the ease of wealthy parishes rather than the salvation of redeemed souls! How fearful the risk of emasculation in those who need the heroic spirit of martyrs in the prosecution of their holy work! How hard for the Pulpit under such circumstances to find men equal to its high demands-disciplined as well as educated-earnest, active, consecrated-imbued with the progressive spirit of the age, and not perverted by the material spirit of the age-persistently seeking the salvation of mankind, and to the rewards of earth preferring the crown of heaven!

But we will suppose the parish obtained. What difficulties now confront the faithful young clergyman! Perhaps he is greeted with warm acclamations by his new people, and his path seems through flowers. He soon discovers over his church a cloud of debt. There is a threatening mortgage. There are unrented

pews. There are embarrassing claims. Discipline is relaxed. Divisions disturb. Pressed by demands for money parishioners have come to regard the clerical relation as a commercial arrangement, and the question is, will the rectorship pay? Will it sell the pews? Will it discharge the debts? Will it draw the crowd? On every side are ministers who resort to popular arts, popular themes, and popular harangues to gain hearers. Under such circumstances how hard to be faithful! How hard to imperil favor by enforcing discipline! How hard to seek souls instead of crowds! How hard to sacrifice present pecuniary interests and temporary plaudits for the good of the Church and the smile of Heaven ! Yet it is just victory over such temptations that is to strengthen the character of the clergyman, and give the pulpit that manly independence and that divine power which are its truest dignity and glory. Let our young ministers conquer here, and they will conquer everywhere. From such struggles are born the noblest triumphs and successes of the sacred office.

And with all our discouragements there never was a period when men daring to be true could expect eventually so certain and so rich a reward. The day of unity will dawn on the Church. Small questions of postures and vestments, and colors and lights, and incense cannot forever disturb our peace. Our matchless Liturgy with a few changes might be made universal in its adaptation, and so meet our spiritual needs, that we would no more think of discussing little peculiarities of service than a gentleman thinks of discussing the fit and color of his perfect coat. Thus the Pulpit may be left free for the lofty purposes of the Church in presenting those vast and grand themes whose centre is the Cross and whose circumference is Eternity. Then will come on us from Heaven a brighter period of expansion, and elevation, and power.

But even in the peculiarities of our age and country are many hopeful indications. We, indeed, see on every side sham and materialism. Corruption is abroad in the land, tainting office with its polluting breath. Extravagance, dissipation, vice, crime are frightful in their effrontery and their excess. Vast corporations, lawless as a medieval aristocracy with its castles, and barons, and retainers, are amassing wealth and power by oppressing the people, by bribing jurors, by buying judges, by controlling legislatures. Atheism, and Infidelity, and Schism, and practical Idol

atry are banishing God from the hearts of men. Yet these stupendous perils are making Christians thoughtful. Earnest men are turning from small expedients to large measures. They see how powerless is any human agency to grapple with such Satanic forces. They are compelled to prayer, to faith, to heaven. Nothing can save us but a holy ministry commissioned by a holy Church, and baptized by the Holy Ghost, and amid the divisions of sects, and the abandonment of expedients, the Christianity of this Republic will more and more turn to the inspiring history, the conservative genius, the doctrinal purity, the spiritual Liturgy of our own Church which preserves the old creeds, the old offices, the old order, the old succession, the old Catholicity, and which is destined to have a new life, a new power, a new popularity, and a new triumph in this new world, if she will only submit her gold to the final test of another crucible.

ART. II.-DR. VINTON'S MANUAL.

A Manual Commentary on the General Canon Law and the Constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. BY FRANCIS VINTON, S.T.D., D.C.L., &c., &c. New York, E. P. Dutton & Co., 1870.

THIS Book appears to have originated in the practical work of the Ludlow Professor in the General Theological Seminary. His eminent learning, and deep researches have led him over a field that is to the clergy of the Church in this country comparatively unknown, and the utility of a foundation such as that the duties of which he so diligently discharges, is plainly suggested by a perusal of the pages of the Manual which he now generously lays before the Church. The design of the publication of the work, as modestly stated by the author in his preface, is to assist the student in his future ministry, and to furnish aid also to other teach, ers and pupils as well as to studious men in various departments. The purpose of the work is truly commendable, and the evident. zeal with which it has been executed, prepares the reader to appreciate the sincerity with which its author humbly offers it to Christ and the Church.

The work divides itself into two parts, relating to, I. The common law of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, and, II., the preliminary history of the Constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, the legislative power and authority of the General Convention, and the Constitution of the Church. These headings are sufficient to indicate the scope of the work, and give promise of a general interest and value which a perusal does not disappoint. The compendious statement of the sources of the Common Law, and the exact and copious reference to authorities are well adapted to give to the readers of the Manual an increase in the knowledge of a subject, which, in this country, has never until recently received the attention to which its importance entitles it. There is also much valuable information. concerning the matter of parliamentary order as applicable to the working of the General Convention under the Constitution; while as to the form of the work, the Catechetical arrangement can hardly be too highly commended. It does not need the apology which the writer makes for it. Besides the precedent of Grey which he cites, there are Dr. Hammond's practical Catechism, and the famous Doctor and Student, and other valuable treatises to give him countenance, while the advantage of such an arrangement is obvious to any one who opens a book for information rather than entertainment.

While we thus commend the Book, however, to the favorable consideration of those who may be interested in its subject, we must be permitted to do so with a word of caution. There are some defects in the Book which the author, should he think it right to do so, might easily supply in another edition, and there is some teaching in it to which we cannot assent. For example, with respect to the obligation of Ancient Canons we do not think the author so exact as he should be. He lays down the principle that the Catholic Canon Law in all things applicable belongs to us until we expressly disclaim its possession, (p. 18), and again, (p. 19), that the ancient Canons mentioned in the office for the consecration of a Bishop form a part of the Catholic code. He illus trates by reference to the first of the Apostolic Canons requiring three Bishops to consecrate a Bishop. But it does not appear to us, although possibly it may appear to the students in the light of the Professor's verbal comments, whether these canons are all of equal