ART. V.-UNIVERSITY OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CANADA.

1.-Letter of the Lord Bishop of Huron to the Clerical and Lay Members of the Executive Committee of his Diocese. August, 1860.

2.-Two Letters to the Lord Bishop of Toronto in reply to charges brought by the Lord Bishop of Huron against the Theological teaching of Trinity College, Toronto. September and November, 1860.

3.-Rise and Progress of Trinity College, Toronto, with a Sketch of the Life of the Lord Bishop of Toronto, as connected with Church Education in Canada. By HENRY MELVILLE, M.D. Toronto, 1852.

LOOKING round upon the world in the grandeur of the picture it presents, we shall be affected by two opposite feelings. We shall have wonder and exultation on the one hand, and not a little of regret and mortification on the other. The mere citizen of the world may well feel pride and triumph in contrasting with the achievements of past ages, the gigantic advancement exhibited in the present generation. The march of intellect, as evinced in the discoveries of recent times,—in the application to practical purposes of principles scarcely unfolded a few years since,-may well put to shame the highest boasting of the best era of science in past ages. Perhaps, too, in a philanthropic point of view,-as regards the actual welfare of the human race,-the advancement of science and art may afford higher grounds for wonder and congratulation. For it may with confidence be affirmed that the effect of recent discoveries and improvements has been to diffuse more generally amongst mankind the benefits and bounties of Divine Providence. New fields of labor and of enterprise have thus been opened, and opportunity afforded to many of acquiring independence and comfort, who formerly were well nigh shut out from the hope of either.

But if there has been gain on the side of the world, and so much to awaken a feeling of triumph in its votaries, we are to ask what is the picture, what is the prospect, in the world of the kingdom of grace. We may inquire whether the contemplation of this is calculated to awaken joy or distress, hope or depression; how far, in short, the Christian must be pained and saddened, while the man of the world exults and rejoices. Would that we could feel and say that the cause of genuine religion was keeping pace with improvements of a more secular character!

We shall not, by any means, admit that the Gospel has stood still, while the world has been advancing; that there has been no progress in spiritual things, while, in matters affecting the present life, there have been such amazing strides. Yet it must not be denied that, to a great extent, the world's triumph has proved the Gospel's injury; that, while science has been pushing its discoveries, and men have been intoxicated with their splendor and their benefits, hearty votaries of the God of truth have grown cold in their love, or been stolen away from His cause.

Looking at the world's events and at the history of the human heart, we shall hardly wonder at this. Two grand impulses, two mighty passions,-though not necessarily antagonistic,-will seldom keep pace with each other. One is sure to outstrip the other, and by and by, it may be, to absorb the other. There can hardly be a mighty rushing impulse on the side of the world, and any thing like a corresponding depth of feeling and interest in an opposite direction. From the influence of visible over unseen things, the aspirations of the mind and heart to spiritual and heavenly attainments will be reduced in their intensity, and grow comparatively faint and cold.

These opposing principles have been sadly exemplified within the present generation, in the efforts, which have been too successful, to separate and divorce religion from all those acts and agencies by which it might bend and mould the world to its own pure and holy temper. The prevalent disposition is to make religion an isolated thing,-sundered from every-day sympathies and common pursuits; the world, in all the vari

ety of its necessary work, facing it as an enemy, and no opportunity given to have its employments breathed upon and sanctified by heavenly truth. The desire too commonly is, to divide Education into two separate branches, namely: an education exclusively for the world; and religious instruction, when it is given at all, distinct by itself.

Here the fatal error is, in not making the last the basis of the first,-in not making Gospel truth the foundation of all other learning. The error is all the more fatal, that, while education for the world is distinct and formal, and has a State support, education for eternity is left to such action and nurture as a chance impulse or benevolence may afford. And a direct consequence of this is, that while instruction for this life is made a matter of more concern and interest than education for heaven, religion comes to be tainted by the world, instead of the world being sanctified by religion. The march of improvement that we have been speaking of,-the vast acquisitions of science in recent years, the wonderful discoveries, the unparalleled ingenuity and power of intellect,-all serve, as we may say, to widen the breach betwixt God and His creatures. Instead of their being rendered more humble and more thankful by the possession of these gifts and endowments, men's imaginations become more exalted, their pride is elevated, their self-dependence is increased. They become every day more estranged from the Almighty, more neglectful of religion, and further off from heaven. That the vicious principle which is now so rife amongst us is at the root of all this, is painfully exemplified in the fact that the direct antagonism betwixt religion and the world, is mostly visible in those who are of some little eminence in literary acquirements and intellectual gifts. We rarely find the poor and unlettered man a sceptic or an infidel; it is the little learning of this world, unseasoned by religion, which begets the spirit of opposition to Gospel truth.

How lamentably, too, does this lofty, self-aggrandizing spirit check the wholesome restraints and mar the genial influence of religion, even in cases where there is a disposition to acknowledge its power and be guided by its light. Religion itself,

through the false principle now so much cherished, becomes a speculative, capricious and unreal thing; men deal with it as a system merely, as something helpful to personal interests or party feelings. It becomes, in too many quarters, a question of names and prejudices, a contest of opinions, a rivalry of sects. The inquiry comes to be, not how the mind is to be sanctified, and the heart made better, not how the truth and integrity of Christ's Kingdom is to be maintained and extended; · but how far party views and opinions may be strengthened and advanced. The question is, not how men shall be brought down to the temper of little children, and deal with great verities as they are revealed; but how they shall be armed and defended in their own ill-defined and humanly-derived theories and peculiarities.

The great Educational Institutions of our mother country have contributed, in an eminent degree, to mould and sustain the national character; and every son and daughter and descendant of that glorious land, must exult in the proud preeminence of her moral and religious condition over all the nations of the earth. Let us be honest in tracing effects to their cause; and acknowledge that the conjunction of a godly with a secular education has mainly achieved for her this unapproachable distinction. Her Universities have been the handmaids, not the rivals of religion; and her Public Schools, framed upon the same principle, have sent forth the youth of the land to be there made complete with the panoply of the Christian and the Churchman.

Some will always be found who will vaunt themselves as wiser than their fathers, and be bold enough to fling aside the patient lessons of experience as worthless. Speculative minds in England have ventured upon the experiment of a University dissociated from religion, with no intermingling of its teaching, no holy influence extracted from its lessons. It stands ostentatiously in the metropolis of the Empire, with the local adjuncts of support which an overgrown capital will give. But it has no hold upon the heart of the nation; the popular sympathies are not in unison with its professions and pretensions. We have dry classics and hard mathematics, and

pompous science sedulously and ably taught; but the electric current of gentle religion courses not through them; and the men it sends forth are as hard and ungenial as the system under which they have been trained. It is Science for Science' sake; and not to soften, and ameliorate, and gladden the people.

The erratic spirit of the Mother will naturally and easily be transferred to the Daughter. An innovation in the Empire upon the old system of things, will speedily find advocates in the Colony. Dissent and discontent will accompany the annual emigrations; and the inroads upon time-honored usages and institutions are more rapid and sweeping when men are exulting in a young-born independence. Let us contemplate a leading point in the history of Canada as an illustration.

For many years it was the settled wish and steady aim of the present venerated Bishop of Toronto, to establish a University in Upper Canada,—one that would be provincial and comprehensive, and exalt the literary standing and religious feeling of the Colony. The necessary steps of preparation had been antecedently taken,-Grammar Schools established, and schools of humbler pretensions, to be the feeders of the more advanced seminaries. An ample endowment was secured as a gift from the Crown; and there were only the necessary fiscal arrangements retarding the execution of the noble undertaking. KING'S COLLEGE obtained a Charter, and the great work was begun.

But an objection and grievance was detected in what, to unprejudiced and rightly constituted minds, was the singular value of the provisions it embodied. It was framed upon the model of the English Universities, and was therefore regarded as too exclusive by the many-hued forms and fashions of Dissent which the Colony presented. If the tissue of religion throughout its organization must be respected, this must be held in suspicion if it was marked too distinctively by the principles of the Church. It became, soon, the theme of popular agitation, and by and by of Legislative discussion; the discontent and the opposition naturally spreading when political orators adopted it as one of the stepping-stones to parliament