a compendious answer to all possible Scripture difficulties, that it will contain a great deal of learned and ingenious disquisition which will give much satisfaction to a large number of persons, but that it will not go to the root of the matter.

We cannot assume that the zealous lay defenders of the established religion have always been actuated by a belief in the truth or Divine authority of its doctrines. They have often, it is probable, been influenced rather by a vague feeling that the Church is a necessary institution, the mainstay of the governing powers, and essential for controlling the people. Macaulay has remarked, speaking of the Tories of the seventeenth century, and their zealous defence of the Church: Few among them could have given any reason drawn from Scripture or ecclesiastical history for adhering to her doctrines, her ritual, or her polity.' In our own times it was said jokingly but truly, of the late Lord Chancellor Eldon, whose zeal for the interests of the Church was undoubted, when some one had called him a pillar of the Church, that he ought rather to have been called a buttress, as he was not often seen in the inside. Wordsworth, as Mr. Crabbe Robinson mentions in his entertaining ‘Diary' (vol. i. 389), had on some occasion defended earnestly the Church establishment. He even said he would shed his blood for it. Nor was he disconcerted by a laugh raised against him on account of his having before confessed that he

knew not when he had been in a church in his own country."

It must not be supposed that, if the claim of Christianity to be a miraculous revelation be proved to be without foundation, therefore Christianity would cease to be esteemed, and that there would be no more Christians. A man may be a Christian gentleman† (for well does the epithet Christian' imply the

* Wordsworth's Churchism, though professed with some emphasis, was of a very vague character. His definition of a good Churchman, according to Mr. Crabbe Robinson, who knew him intimately, was 'one who respects the institutions of his country, lives in conformity with their precepts, and does not trouble other people about their opinions.'-H. C. Robinson's Diary, iii. 50.

Wordsworth's real opinions are to be sought in his poetry. In his reflections among the ruins of Tintern Abbey we have a glimpse of his feeling of the Divine nature, when, speaking of passing from the period of thoughtless youth' to a maturer age, he says

'I have felt

A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit that impels

All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.'

This has hardly the true orthodox ring.

6 The best of men

That e'er wore earth about Him was a sufferer,

A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit,

The first true gentleman that ever breathed.'-DEKKER.

There is something inexpressibly attractive in the character of Jesus

higher elements of the character of a gentleman-all those dispositions which make men affable and courteous, gentle and kind, deferential and yet sincere and truthful) without believing the story of the miraculous introduction of Christianity into the world, or adopting all the doctrines imputed to its Founder.

The singular notion seems to have entered the minds of many worthy people, that the great blessings to humanity which followed the introduction of Christianity into the world are in some way bound up with the nation's belief in the supernatural doctrines of the Fall and the Atonement, and that if these be given up, we must necessarily fall back into the low state of morality which prevailed before the introduction of Christianity, and that we shall have no more charitable institutions, no pious and excellent ladies devoting themselves as we now witness, in a manner beyond all praise, to the relief of sickness, destitution, and distress of every kind. But there seems no ground for this apprehension. All this will, no doubt, still go on

as it shines out in the simple narratives of the Evangelists. As it has been somewhere remarked, if he had not been the wisest of mortals he would have been the most amiable. His sensibility, his tenderness to the softer sex, his fondness for children, are never failing. His austerity has in it nothing repulsive. He was at once indulgent and just, gentle to the weak and terrible to the wicked.' I have often thought that in dealing with that most perplexing problem of modern society, the treatment of our erring sisters, we should do well always to bear in mind the tender and affectionate consideration of Jesus for the unfortunate Mary.

independently of the dogmatic system which it is the business of our costly Establishment to maintain, and perhaps flourish all the more from being freed from such encumbrance.

That the Church had a very beneficial moral influence for many centuries after the introduction of Christianity, notwithstanding the vices and corruption of some of its members, need not be disputed. It was of inestimable value also in preserving and handing down the records of a past civilisation, many of which would otherwise have been lost. Macaulay has observed: From the time when the Barbarians overran the Western Empire to the time of the revival of letters the influence of the Church of Rome had been generally favourable to science, to civilisation, and to good government.' So long as its dogmas were received with undoubting belief and were not at variance with the intelligence of the age, the whole worked harmoniously. In course of time, however, as was sure to happen under such a system, differences of opinion arose; religious sects grew up, and these led to endless controversies, dissensions in families, persecutions, public and private, and religious wars, to such an extent as to make it doubtful whether, on the whole, the Christian Church-not the teaching and example of Jesus, but the Church which has usurped His namenotwithstanding all we owe to it, has been a blessing to

mankind or the contrary. How readily, even in this comparatively enlightened age, the religious spirit may be perverted, and how powerful for evil a priesthood may become, we have had abundant evidence in Ireland during the last few years!

How much longer the civilised world will receive Christianity as supernaturally communicated or will tolerate the strange system into which the Church has transformed it, it is impossible to conjecture. There are many indications that a change is at hand, and it is of great moment that the nation should be prepared for it whenever it may come. Regarding the Church as a branch of the public service for promoting religion and morality, one cannot but regret that it should have fallen so lamentably short of what might have been accomplished by such a body of educated men, so endowed with wealth and enjoying so much authority, had they filled their true position of leaders of the intellect and piety of

* The following picture of the Church and its history is from the pen of one who was at least an earnest friend to the Church, the late Dean Alford :

'Alas! what is the history of the Church but the history of the world's hatred more embittered; of the world's selfishness more intensified; of the world's pride made prouder still? In the records of the past ages of our era, where shall we turn for the most flagrant cruelties? To the history of the Church. Where for the basest hypocrisies? Again to the history of the Church . . . . . . to that sad and dreary page whereon are written the crimes, the strifes, the wars, the controversies of Churchmen.'--Quebec Chapel Sermons, i. 132.