a kind and pure-hearted man, a lover of truth and sincerity, humble in his very greatness, Faraday, as an experimental philosopher and as a Christian gentleman, was a man of genius, winning his way from the humblest position, and has left a name which the world will not willingly let die. ART. IX.-UNITY IN OUR NEXT GENERAL CONVENTION. The Church Book Society. Thirteenth Annual Report. Depository, New York, 1865. Proceedings of the Board of Managers of the Protestant Episcopal Society for the promotion of Evangelical Knowledge, at the twenty-third annual meeting. No. 3, Bible House, New York. The Evangelical Educational Society. Fourth Annual Report. No. 2 Bible House, New York, 1870. The Fourteenth The Society for the Increase of the Ministry. Eleventh Annual Report. American Church Missionary Society. The Report of the Russo-Greek Committee. Journal of the Italian Reform Movement. Report of Committee to the General Convention, 1868. It is impossible to comprehend the genius and mission of the English and American churches without studying their peculiar relation to Christendom. Perhaps one reason why they are so generally misunderstood is found in the fact that they are regarded only in the present, and not in the future. The triumphs of our Holy Religion are not to be disconnected from the Greek and Latin Communions. These spread themselves over vast territories. These number their hundreds of millions. These are venerable in their history, marvellous in their influence, gigantic in their organization. On the contrary how powerful that section of Protestantism rejecting an Episcopal order! How it has diffused itself over the earth! How numerous its adherents! How great its learning! How multiplied its agencies! How respectable its literature! How its societies, and colleges, and publications, and pulpits lead and guide the development of the age, and country! Now between that medieval Catholicism which has retained the order of the Church but corrupted its Faith, and that modern Protestantism which inculcates its Faith, but repudiates its order, the only Providential link of connection is that wise Anglicanism which has preserved both the Order and the Faith. God, through the Saxon race, has spread it over the world. It is everywhere an olive branch. It would unite in the Cross vast Communions otherwise hopelessly divided. It would bring into millenial fellowship our universal Christendom, whose consciousness, and whose worship throughout our globe may yet find expression in the language of our venerable Prayer-Book. While this is our heritage and our mission we cannot now triumph in the prospect. The glow of victory is reserved for a future generation. Our emblem now is the cross rather than the crown. In England and America the ambassadors of unity are themselves distracted by divisions. Without glancing over the ocean, the state of our own Church is sufficiently humiliating and embarrassing. We are distracted by antagonisms of opinion, numerous and hostile. 1. There is a Roman element which has recently escaped from its disguise in a form so bold and flagrant that it cannot be mistaken. If the poison is confined in its operations it is yet most active and venomous. It can be analyzed, and studied in an address issued by their Rector to the Communicants of the St. Sacrament Mission in the city of New York, during the past year. This circular uses the following daring language. "With reference to the celebration of the Holy Communion in the oratory, the first celebration will always be offered in Reparation of the insults our Lord receives in the Holy Sacrament from those who do not discern His body. The solemn celebration will always be offered for the intentions of the Mission. The celebration on Thursday will be for the benefactors of the Mission. And in receiving Holy Communion communicants should avoid all excess and extravagance of gesture, all genuflections after receiving (God is then within us, think on Him there, not on the altar )." Here the Eucharist, styled previously the "daily Sacrifice," is offered for the unworthy. Nay, more! It is not only for believers who participate, but for the absent who contribute. Money purchases its efficacy. Before communication God is on the altarafter communication God is in the man. This necessitates a transfer of the Deity in the elements by the Priest through the bodily organs of the partaker. The Jesuits of the Vatican could advance no further. 2. There is, among a few extremists, a similar doctrine carefully veiled, yet clearly discernible in the gaudy ceremonialism of an alien Ritualism, opposed at once to the history, the doctrine and the law of the Church. 3. There is a small number of pious and estimable men, whose taste and loyalty alike reject a flippant and tawdry service, aided by lights, and colors, and incense, but who sincerely believe in a local, exterior, objective, yet Spiritual Presence of our Lord on the altar, to be adored and offered in Sacrifice. 4. There is a still narrower circle of those, who, in the very opposite extreme, rushing away from superstition into skepticism, hold principles logically antagonistic to everything supernatural in the Scriptures, and who nearly approach the views of Unitarians and Universalists. 5. There is not a large number, who, orthodox in Faith, disregard our Order, and from excessive Protestant sympathies, dare even to mutilate the offices, and violate the canons of the Church. 6. There is a very numerous and powerful class who admit our Primitive Institution, who concede the fact of Apostolic Succession, who love the Great Creeds, who admire our Liturgy, who observe the restrictions imposed by ordinal and canon on our pulpits, and who yet maintain that Episcopacy is not essential to a true Church. 7. There is a decided majority who believe our Ecclesiastical Order Scriptural, Primitive, Inspired, Divine, and of universal obligation; who would reconcile our Catholicity, and our Protestantism; and whose views of the Sacraments, while various, are within the limits of liberty allowed by our Standards. Now, it is from such a chaos of warring elements that the Church has to elaborate a practical unity, while the problem is complicated by the opposite poles of Romanism and Radicalism, constantly drawing to themselves the weak and fluctuating particles. Surely nothing but a wisdom from Heaven can give success in a task so tedious and so complicated. The first, second, fourth, and fifth classes enumerated may be left to the ecclesiastical tribunals. They are alien enemies in the citadels of the Church. Romanism, Ritualism, and Radicalism secure their defeat by their violence. The illegal excesses of our Metropolis, which so long excited the country, have received recent rebukes which will possibly relieve the General Convention from all further trouble in their suppression. By stirring their ashes it might only revive their embers. The sparks may yet sometimes. glimmer, but the flame is, we trust, extinguished. The third class we have mentioned, not carrying their opinions into ceremonial, and encouraged by the recent decision of the Court of Arches, must be left to itself. It can never be very large, very powerful, or very offensive. The men who compose it are loyal, pious, and prudent. Their opinions seldom come to the surface, and, separated from Ritual, cannot be widely popular. All questions of internal unity therefore reduce themselves practically to the consideration of the last two classes into which we have divided the Church. This is the more certainly true, since they compose the vast majority of our communicants in America. Indeed, they form properly the Church. Now, in all matters of administration every wise government accommodates itself strictly to facts; over loyal subjects its sway is paternal. Where law is transgressed of course authority must be vindicated. Inevitable parties must, however, be tolerated. Individualities must be consulted. Differences must be compromised. The largest possible circle of liberty must be allowed, compatible with the majesty of the law. On no other principle could our Republic stand one hour. If the State has the spirit of a Father, shall not the Church have the love of a Mother? She must tenderly regard her children as they are, and not as they ought to be; and while reducing to obedience obstinate rebels, she must seek the happiness of her offspring by overlooking their peculiarities, and forgiving their faults. We cannot err in asserting, that, as the General Convention is the supreme authority in the Church, it should always have such an attitude to all her sincere and faithful members. And surely our present painful condition needs both peculiar toleration, and peculiar wisdom. Perhaps more than any other communion in the world, our own now requires the grace of charity. We are between enemies whom we seek to reconcile as friends, and we can only accomplish the unity of Christendom by an example of peace among ourselves. Besides, the two acknowledged, and unavoidable schools of opinion have to confront equal difficulties. They have existed in the Church since the Reformation. They can each claim an array of noble names in vindication of their views. They must therefore spring from the very constitution of human nature itself. A wise and large administration will comprehend them both under its care. To impress more forcibly these considerations we will state some of the embarrassing conclusions which follow from these cherished positions. Take the question of our ecclesiastical Order! All loyal Churchmen agree in holding as facts Diocesan Episcopacy and Apostolic Succession, and witness to our Primitive Institution by a practical submission to ecclesiastical legislation. Is not this sufficient for all purposes of government? Where there is acquiescence why should there be strife? Can we forget the difficulties either view involves? Can either be sustained by Scripture alone? Does not the laxity of the first Christians teach us toleration? We can demonstrate our Episcopacy to be Apostolic. We infer that it was inspired, and therefore Divine. Here is a chasm to be bridged by a deduction, but not by a proof. Does not this abso lutely necessitate divergencies of opinion? If true men, perplexed, here hesitate to pronounce Episcopacy essential to a Church, and to brand Christians, equaling them in piety and zeal, and success, as schismatics beyond the ordinary channels of grace, shall it excite our surprise, or our hostility? Or, on the other hand, if true men reverencing our government as Scriptural, and Apostolic, and Divine, should regard with greater stringency, organizations which have abandoned a Primitive usage made venerable by the observance of fifteen centuries, and pronounce their departure even a sin, we should certainly respect their sincerity and consistency. Or, consider our differences in regard to the Sacrament of Baptism! If we follow ancient Liturgies, if we accept the definition of our |