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torch of the Gospel of Christ." This is well said in a single sentence, without attempt at ornament. Truths of the uttermost importance are stated, and subjects for deep reflection are placed before the reader.

We shall not attempt to follow Dr. Merle D'Aubigné through the remainder of his volume, which contains the history of the Reformation in Geneva, France, Germany, and Italy. Here he is more at home. He draws his authorities from the purest sources; and his personal acquaintance with the scenes which he describes, their traditions and local histories, gives an additional charm to the work. The cast of his mind, his constant aiming at effect, and his love of working up truth till it sounds. like fiction, give no offence to continental readers. But here

we must close.

POETRY.

ON EXCESS OF RITUALISM IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

WHILST Satire points her sharpest pen to lash
The vices and the follies of our age,

A holy indignation stirs my spirit
To raise my honest, haply feeble, protest
Against the sensuous worship which degrades
Our hallow'd fanes, "beauties of Holiness,"
To the low level of theatric show.

Purg'd from corruption's errors which o'erlaid
Truth's sacred jewel, in the times gone by
Of mediæval darkness, and reform'd
From vain and meretricious ornaments,
Our pure and solemn ritual display'd
Sublime simplicity, befitting Him

Whose worship "is in Spirit and in Truth."

How chang'd how fall'n! Methinks I seem to stand
Within Rome's gorgeous precincts, where the eye

And ear are fascinated, whilst the soul

Is left unfed, unbrac'd, and unrefresh'd!
It more befits the artist's magic skill

Than Truth's stern pen, to paint th' imposing scene
(Impressive only on the eye of sense,

Not on the heart of faith). The white-rob'd choir
Leads the procession; whilst the dulcet strains

Of music please the ear, and usher in

God's ministers, array'd in gorgeous robes
Of various form and colour; as they pass

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The holy table, misnam'd altar, called
Not by such name throughout the service-book,
They make their low obeisance; whilst around
The swinging censers scent the perfum'd air!
Is this (I ask in no irreverent tone),
Is this Religion "pure and undefil'd"?
Where is its model in the Gospel page,
Or where its sanction in our Formularies ?
The clouds of Incense 'neath the vaulted roof
Ascend no higher, whilst the sinner's sighs
Are wafted from the heart on wings of Faith,
And perfum'd by the Saviour's intercession,
By Him presented, reach the Mercy-seat.

For those who love the form more than the power
Of Godliness, it has attractive charms

For thoughtless youth, which comes to be amus'd
E'n in these sacred courts, too much averse
From Truth's divine, unseen realities!

But to the enlighten'd mind of him, whose heart
Glows with the Heav'n-lit flame, such sights,
Such sounds as these, at best but serve

More to distract, than elevate, his thoughts;
They savour more of earth, and less of Heaven!
Children may play at soldiers, and assume
The unreal panoply of mimic war;
But it doth ill become a full-grown man
(That man, a follower, aye, a minister

Of Him the "meek and lowly" One) to play
An actor's part on such a solemn stage,
Bad mimic of the pageant priest of Rome;
Albeit, I brand him not as hypocrite,

But deem him much mistaken, tho' sincere.

R. G.

THE YORK CHURCH CONGRESS.

"His mind," said Robert Hall, of Chalmers, "seems to move on hinges, not on wheels. There is incessant motion, but no progress." It may perhaps be deemed too severe to speak of this description as applicable to the usual proceedings of a Church Congress; and yet it can hardly be denied that those proceedings have hitherto been such as to suggest a reflection of this sort. Recent as is its origin, the Congress is already regarded by many as an established institution.

Hitherto it has been on its trial. It has survived the dissensions which threatened to destroy it at Manchester; it has survived the desertions which weakened it at Bristol and

Norwich; and this survivance is accepted in proof of vitality. The session just closed has been emphatically pronounced "the grandest and most successful of all Congresses," and men of all parties have come forward to take part in its proceedings.

And yet there is something wrong. There is more glitter than gold. The best is on the outside. It looks well, at first sight, that the Dean of Carlisle, who is reported to have denounced Convocation as "that great sham," should have no hesitation in accepting a prominent part in the proceedings of the Church Congress. But what is a solitary fact of this sort, among so many that point the other way? Of the principal supporters of the Congress, the animus is well known. Nor can there be any dispute as to the persistency with which that animus has been displayed. Foreseeing this, many of the brightest ornaments of our Church have, from the first, held aloof. Their apprehensions have been realized. The recent Congress has lacked the presence of great and good men, now absent for the first time, on the specific ground that before such an audience it is vain to expect a fair and impartial hearing, even for the Church's own teaching.

Is this a result that good churchmen should be willing to accept? That they may be compelled to accept it, is, unhappily, too true; but surely not without an effort to avoid it. The abstention of the leaders of the Evangelical school-an abstention already countenanced in several instances from the Episcopal bench-may prove (as now it proves) insufficient to prevent the adherence of certain eminent members, who will thus come to be regarded as its most influential representatives. But this phantom of the Evangelical party is powerless for the defence of Evangelical principles. Without leaders, without organization, without any definite object, what can isolated individuals hope to achieve in the face of an opposition which unites all these advantages, and knows how to use them? They simply serve to grace the triumph of their opponents; to give importance to proceedings which could have no importance without the sanction of their presence; and to give colour to the specious misrepresentation, that those principles of evangelism which in the days of "the Clapham Sect" were an impregnable tower of strength, now present in their ruins nothing more than the mere shadow of a name. That men to whom those principles are dear should lend their influence to promote a Church Congress, may be (as in the opinion of no mean judges it certainly is) a great mistake. On the other hand, it may be a great mistake to stand aloof; but no mistake can be more fatal than the toleration of divided councils and vacillating conduct in a crisis which demands united and decisive action. Our contending for the faith will never be marked by fitting

earnestness until we mean to succeed; and when we mean to succeed, we should adopt the means of success.

What are those means? It is a wide and a grave question. But in its relation to the subject of this paper we need only enquire, What are those means in connexion with a Church Congress? The further question, What is a Church Congress? ridiculously simple as it may seem, is yet one which admits of very different answers. And if we proceed to ask, what are the professed objects of its principal promoters?-what special facilities does it present for the attainment of those objects?— what is the character and value of the results already attained?we shall find, with each fresh question, a still increasing diversity of opinion.

The case for Church Congresses could hardly be more happily or more strongly stated than in the words of the Archbishop of York, in his inaugural address, delivered on the 9th ultimo. Before the well-remembered passage, "If the hands of Convocation were free, as they ought to be free," an utterance which was received with shouts of applause,-His Grace said, "Let me rather speak of the uses of a Church Congress like the present, apart from the functions of the two Convocations. The Congress does not pretend to enact, or resolve, or petition: it discusses and examines subjects of prominent interest, and assists to form the public opinion about them. It plays the same part, with regard to ecclesiastical questions, which one society does towards physiological inquiry, and another towards social science. Of all such associations, where discussion rather than action is the immediate object, it is often said that they are barren of results. But this is most truly said. Whenever a mature public opinion suggests a course of action, the action will presently be taken. True words spoken here may set chords vibrating in many hearts; and the vibration may meet its next response in the parishes to which we go back at this week's end. We shall speak of the school and the sermon, of the duty of the Church towards masses of the population that seem in their growth to outstrip her attempts to reach them. We shall speak of the layman's duty; of the woman's gentler power, which has never been wanting to our Master, since Mary and Joanna and the rest ministered to Him when visible in Galilee. We shall discuss the poor man's social hindrances in a sympathising spirit. Words earnestly uttered by men that are in earnest, on subjects such as these, do not fall to the ground. We shall go back to find a fresh life infused into the tame and trite routine of our duty. The task of teaching from a town pulpit, for example, a congregation full of modern ideas, thoughts, doubts, may become, to some of us, infinitely larger, more solemn, more absorbing, than we

not

took it to be; no longer to be dealt with by a happy knack of reproducing the sermons of the last generation, in a more succinct and modern garb, but rather the supreme task of a mind rich in things new and old, and able to claim the confidence of its hearers by showing itself a leader of their thoughts, better informed than they about the modern spirit, and able to help their strife because it has striven too. Again, some who stand aloof from great social questions, because they do not see their own particular duty there, may find here a suggestion of duty from some remark made in these debates. A teeming population, in great part the untaught, without worship, without aspirations after better things, adjusting its wages by the rude and wasteful machinery of strikes, depressed by overcrowding and unhealthy trades, and correcting the depression by too much drink, the first prey to every epidemic, the first to suffer from a stagnation of commere, ready to listen if we know how to speak, ready as all human hearts have been to answer to the reproof of the Gospel against sin, this great population, fainting and scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd, and yet bound to us by their great need, by our abundant opportunities, how shall we reach them? The harvest truly is plenteous.' Questions like these are ready for discussion, but not for formal enactments and resolutions." This, then, is the answer to those who characterize the proceedings of a Church Congress as mere purposeless talk. But the principal objection it entirely ignores. Those who stand aloof from Church Congresses complain, not of too little purpose, but of too much;-that, in the selection of subjects and of speakers, this purpose is never lost sight of; that it effectually (though not ostensibly) controls the discussions, and "manages' the whole of the proceedings, by a system of secret manoeuvring which, like an Irish reciprocity, is all on one side. Even one of the foremost apologists for these Congresses, while maintaining the strict impartiality of the President and Executive of that at Norwich last year, makes the significant admission, that "if there was a lene clinamen in one direction, it was no more than was to be expected from the earlier and warmest supporters of Church Congresses." And the same may be said with equal truth of the proceedings of the present year. The success of the York Congress, whatever be its amount, is principally due to the wise counsels, the just impartiality, and the inflexible firmness of His Grace the President. To his wise decision it is solely attributable that the programme did not include the advocacy of Ritualism, and the projects of the Eirenicon. But for his firmness, Dr. Lee would have been heard as the representative of the "A. P. U. C." (!), and Dr. Stephens silenced at the bidding of the "E. C. U." But while

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