stitution or the negro fitted him for hard labour under a burning sun, he eagerly coveted his services in the newly discovered field of commercial enterprise. Thus the white man made the black man his victim, sending the kidnapper to entrap him, establishing slave depots on the coast of Africa, treating him in all respects as an article of ordinary commerce, as was formerly the case in the United States of America, where he used to be reckoned as "chattels," and reducing to a regular system an accumulation of horrors which are almost too foul for history to repeat. But the wickedness of man illustrates the truth of God, by accomplishing His faithful word. And a more exact fulfilment of the prophecy which foretold Ham's descendants becoming a servant of servants to his brethren," than that which the slave trade affords, it is impossible to conceive. Whilst the Egyptian has long groaned under the oppression of the Saracens and Turks, who belong to the family of Shem, and the inhabitants of the eastern coast of Africa have suffered from the Arabian slave dealers, who are similarly descended; the negro, in whom the prophecy appears to have had its chief accomplishment, has been for the last three centuries the victim of the relentless cupidity of the sons of Japheth. The prophecy which the Holy Ghost has delivered to us by the mouth of Noah has thus been completely fulfilled. Divine goodness has enlarged Japheth; he dwells in the tents of Shem; and he is lord over the children and heritage of Ham.

SCOTCH EPISCOPACY.

Dead and cold as the

"WE must mend our own windows!" words seem now, those who heard them at York a month ago will remember them as living, glowing words, struck out of the heat of debate, and flying, like sparks from the anvil, to burn wherever they fell. The words themselves, however, are less remarkable than the special application with which they were uttered. Mr. Meyrick had just addressed the Congress on the subject of the evangelization of Italy. But Mr. Meyrick, by his previous defence of the Foreign Aid Society, had roused the wrath of "the Catholic party." True, he was in good company; but his foes know no distinction of persons. Was the A. P. U. C. to be put down by a few bishops, or even by the whole bench? Not very likely. The Bishop of Ely, for having dared to take the same side, fared little better than Mr. Meyrick; and hastened to make his escape as best he could. It was in this posture of affairs-not indeed quite fresh from

the fray, but yet "nursing his wrath to keep it warm"-that Dr. Lee appeared on the platform of the Congress, to do battle for the "Eirenicon," to denounce the projects of Mr. Meyrick, to maintain the supremacy of the Pope, and to promote, as far as possible, the assimilation of the Reformed Church of England to the Apostate Church of Rome. But he had made the grand mistake of reckoning without his host. He had forgotten to remember the firmness of the President. Three times did he shift his ground, and alter the terms of his proposition, in order to avoid the ruling of the chair, but all in vain. There was Mr. Meyrick's noble picture of the future Reformed Church of Italy, and Dr. Lee, in the interest of the Vatican, regarding it with as much affection as the Roman conclave may be supposed to entertain for the cabinet of Florence, and yet unable to touch it. It was very provoking. But there was no help for it; and so, with a few rapidly uttered sentences, in which more was meant than met the ear, he was compelled to abandon the attempt. "I may not say what I mean, but you understand what I mean; we have no business to be meddling with foreign churches: let us look at home: we must mend our own windows." Nor was it in vain that the speaker reckoned on the sympathy of his audience. His party was too numerous, and too unanimous, to let these words be lost for lack of emphasis. They were immediately taken up by the Archdeacon of Taunton, who, while endeavouring to disarm the opposition to which Dr. Lee had succumbed, and to that end carefully disavowing all complicity with that gentleman's particular enterprise, proclaimed himself on the same side, by the adoption of the same motto. "Disagreeing as I do with much, very much, that has fallen from the preceding speaker, there is one point in which I thoroughly agree with him-We had better mend our own windows!"

Now, will it be believed that the very party by whom this declaration was so rapturously applauded should come forward within a month to applaud, not less rapturously, a flagrant violation of the principle which it involves? Yet such is the fact. The rule laid down for Italy has been broken at Inverness; and the sermon on caution and glass-houses has been followed by a pæan for the success of an expedition for throwing stones. It would be incredible, were it not true.

How the Times was the first to draw attention to the fact; how severely it was assailed therefore; how inconsistent were the allegations of the delinquents; how incongruous the arguments of the defenders; all this need not be repeated here. It is by no means unimportant to observe, however, that, abundantly as they have been caricatured, those who have thought it necessary to censure the Archiepiscopal expedition

Their facts are still

to Inverness have not yet been answered. unchallenged; their arguments unrefuted. The replies of their opponents are distinguished by their ingenious variety, rather than by their consentaneous force. One enlists on his side all the power of ridicule; another, on imaginary grounds, assumes himself to have ascertained the authorship of the obnoxious article, and then proceeds to the indulgence of insulting personalities; while a third, with a show of argument, takes good care that it shall be argument on some minor point, and not on the main question. What that question is, and what its true answer, will be more clearly perceived if we briefly review the principal facts on which our judgment must be formed. Episcopacy, Presbytery, Church Establishments-all these are involved; and because they are so, we must begin at the beginning.

In Scotland, from the reign of Malcolm Canmore to that of the ill-fated Mary, the supreme power in matters ecclesiastical was papal; but from the beginning it was not so. Primeval Christianity dawned upon Britain, not from Rome, but from Iona, that illustrious island" celebrated (in the words of Johnson) as "the luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefit of knowledge, and the blessings of religion." But the light diffused from Iona was itself received from Ireland, a fact of no slight importance to our subsequent investigation. Without, then, minutely inquiring into the agency which brought about the baptism of Donald I., his queen, and court, at the beginning of the third century, or that which induced Cratilinth to afford his effective protection to the refugees from the Diocletian persecution,-without detailing the subsequent successes which in the fifth century attended the labours of Ninian, Kentigern, and other evangelists, we may date the general prevalence of Christianity in North Britain from the establishment of the Culdees at Iona, in 563. Of the piety of these men there is no question. Whether "Culdee" be derived from "Ceil-de," "Ceili-de," or "cultor Dei," it was an apt designation, and abundantly deserved. Their doctrines, however, it must be confessed, are not regarded with a like unanimity of opinion. A recent writer says,-"Late investigations shew that they did not differ in any material point of faith, discipline, or ritual, from the other Catholic clergy of the period;" and he adds, that "ultimately the Culdees generally became known as Canons Regular." Now, whether the points of difference were or were not material, it is important to remember that such points did exist. The Culdee "Rule" was devised by Athanasius. Their office was the Greek, and not the Roman. It differed from the latter in the Eucharistic Office,

the prophetical lessons, the sermon and offices after it, as well as in various other particulars. These primitive evangelists "rejected auricular confession, as well as authoritative absolution." They confessed to God alone, and taught that "God alone could forgive sins." They neither prayed to dead men, nor for them; so little did they believe in the intercession of angels and saints. They had no images in their churches; for they denounced the use of them as "heathenish and idolatrous." They knew nothing of transubstantiation, and had no need of the sacrifice of the mass. For, in its stead, they received the Lord's Supper in both kinds, and they called it "the communion of the body and blood of their Lord and Saviour." They had no dispensation of indulgences, and were in happy ignorance of purgatory. They made no use of consecrated chrism in baptism, and they rejected the Romish form for the solemnization of matrimony. They even sinned (as Erasmus would have said) still more grievously; for they would neither give to the Church of Rome the tenths nor the first fruits, nor acknowledge any allegiance to its bishop. No wonder that the Papal writers, by whom these facts are recorded, should stigmatise the Scoti as "schismatics and heretics;" and as being in reality "Pagans, while calling themselves Christians." The point to be specially noticed, however, is this: that although recorded only to be denounced, still the fact of their being thus recorded by distinguished Roman writers (a saint like Bernard, an historian like O'Connor, an antiquary like O'Halloran), makes it indisputably certain that these peculiarities did exist, and did most effectually distinguish, from those of the Romish communion, all those, to whom they pertained. With these facts before us, when we find a Pope (Celestine) admitting that the Scoti were a people "in Christo credentes," we can afford to smile at the censure appended to the admission— "sed non recte."

As to the other statement, that the Culdees "ultimately became known as Canons Regular," it is not one which calls for any lengthened remark. The arrogant tyranny which changes times and laws makes it no conscience to "wear out the saints of the Most High." But although they themselves were at length worn out, the fruit of their labours, and the influence of their example, remain to this day. Bede, sincerely as he was attached to the Church of Rome, has pronounced a eulogium on their purity of faith and life, which not even their warmest panegyrist could exceed.* Innet, in his learned "Origines Anglicanæ," bears similarly honourable testimony. Gibbon (in this matter an unexceptionable witness) says, "It was not * See his Eccl. Hist. lib. iii. passim.

a doubtful ray of science and superstition that these monks diffused over the northern regions; superstition, on the contrary, found them her most determined foes." This was their only crime, but it was enough to seal their doom. After the Whitby Conference, they were driven out of England, to be replaced by the Benedictines. At the beginning of the eighth century, they were expelled from Iona. Their general treatment may be seen in such particular instances as that of Lochleven, where their deprivation and rejection (in the reign of David I.) was solely the result of their deliberate and persistent refusal to adopt the customs of Rome. But, after all, it was found that religious vitality such as theirs is in no danger of sudden death. Lanigan himself (a Romish historian) has shown that Iona was still the seat of a flourishing Culdean community so late as 1203. Nor was their light extinguished in the densest period of the Papal darkness; for Archbishop Usher tells us that in his time (four centuries later) they existed, in considerable numbers, around the greater churches of his diocese. At last, however, seduction succeeded where coercion had failed. The Culdee abbots were made bishops; and to those who had parishes their benefices were preserved during life. Their president was made precentor; "he was to have the most honourable seat at table, and every respect from the chapter." Thus Gregory, abbot of the Culdees' monastery at Dunkeld, was made bishop of that see; and Andrew, his successor, consecrated bishop of Caithness. The success of this scheme was perfect. The men who had conquered at Cannæ were vanquished at Capua; and the remnant of the Culdees "ultimately became known as Canons Regular."

The reign of Popery in Scotland was inaugurated, at the end of the eleventh century, by the division of the kingdom into the five dioceses of St. Andrew's, Glasgow, Moray, Caithness, and Aberdeen; to which David I. (Saint David) added those of Ross, Brechin, Dunkeld, and Dumblane.* It received its final overthrow in 1560, when, in compliance with the petition of "the barons, gentlemen, burgesses, and other true subjects of the realm, professing the Lord Jesus, praying that the doctrines and ceremonies of the Church of Rome might be abolished, that the profanation of the sacraments might be prevented, and the Church governed after the manner of the primitive Christians," the "Confession of Faith," drawn up chiefly by Knox, "was approved and solemnly ratified by

Educated in England, his liberality to the priests knew no bounds. In endowing these bishoprics, and the many monasteries which he established (e. g., the famous abbeys of Jedburgh, Kelso,

Melrose, and Holyrood House), he alienated a great part of the royal patrimony. It was this which caused James I. to say that "St. David had been a sore saint to the crown."