duction. I do not marvel at the bitterness of thought and speech directed against Geneva by some who would fain draw again a monkish cowl over our eyes, and thereby blind us to their further proceedings.

'It is clear to me that a consolidation of Protestantism must take place, and probably a great condensation too, ere long, to stem the tide of crror, daily gathering new strength from tributary streams that, after pursuing their own eccentric courses for a while, lose themselves in the rushing river. The fact is palpable enough, that whatever seeks to bear down our bulwarks must desire to weaken them; and for this purpose nothing is so effectual as division. Next after the grasp of divine truth itself, I would cling most tenaciously to the grand principle of union among all Protestant churches and denominations. We may and must regret that any differences exist they are fissures in our wall, to be deplored, as threatening wider breaks; but we must be altogether demented to make them an excuse for such absolute separation as must needs level the whole fabric, and leave the enemy a free course.

'That is precisely the plan into which they are trying to wheedle, to threaten, or by cunning sophistry to delude us. Put your readers on their guard against the device: the authoritative tone assumed by some who arrogate to one class of men, in one branch of the true vine, the title of "The Church," and the office of all but infallible teachers, is apt to startle the weak, and to stagger the unstable, among Christ's timid little flock. Puseyism went a step or two beyond the mark: the Oxford leaders advanced to a point where their troops hesitated to follow; and there they have halted, waiting for the main body

to come up. This must be a work of time; and effected by a movement not so open or rapid. Rome will be rejected, perhaps denounced, as the very last spot at which they should aim to arrive; while the approximation of the vanguard to that terminus is perhaps strongly ensured. All that these new guides require is that Anglicanism, as they affectedly call it, should stand alone, aloof from, and so far opposed to all other Christian bodies, as to make it a matter of prayer, concerning the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and I suppose also the other Protestant Churches, not being episcopally Anglican, "Bring them home, blessed Lord, to thy fold”— thus embodying them in the same clause with other "Turks, Infidels and Heretics" prayed for on Good Friday. Away with such insulting arrogance! This haughty spirit cometh before a fall; and when I see it rampant in the Established church of England, I tremble for the good old community to which I myself belong.

'Do you think, uncle, that all who preach up this Anglican infallibility are themselves aware of what it is tending to?'

'By no means: many of them would recoil from it if they saw the end: satisfied that they have no other foundation than the rock, holding and promulgating the main doctrines of the Christian faith, they build away, unconscious that the fire shall prove their materials to be but wood, hay, stubble. Ensnared by the sounding names of antiquity, they, unconsciously perhaps, receive for doctrines the traditions of men, and adopt a test very different from that which God has appointed. Not to the law and

to the testimony, but to the liturgy and rubric they

bring all doubtful matters: their claim to apostolic authority being precisely one in kind with that by which the Pope sits in what he is pleased to call the chair of St. Peter. Their teaching is very dangerous; because, while with scriptural truth insisting on the necessity of an inward renewal of man's nature, they base the work itself on a carnal ordinance, limiting the efficacy of that ordinance within certain bounds, beyond which they assert that it is not valid. In plainer terms, they preach regeneration scripturally; but then they very unscripturally teach baptismal regeneration as a true doctrine; and confine the power of administering the rite to men episcopally ordained. To authenticate this, they adduce certain dubious expressions in the book of Common Prayer, interpreted by themselves, which if you decline to accede to, then you are no churchman, but a dissenter; and if a dissenter, then out of the church; and if out of the church, not under the covenant, but an alien, a stranger, still to be brought nigh-not by the blood of Christ, but by some opus operatum, confined to a particular order in a particular branch of the universal church. Thus are you hunted round in a circle, and weak brains become giddy, weak consciences alarmed, weak knees tremulous, till people find themselves, they know not how, reclining for rest and shelter at the foot of the seven hills.'

'That I can easily comprehend; for, denounce Rome as they may, I believe every one of this class admits the validity of Rome's episcopal orders; while strenuously denying the existence of any lawful ecclesiastical function in churches, however Protestant and pure, that do not possess what they call the

Apostolical Succession, conferred by the laying on of Episcopal hands. The snare is a perilous one, and likely to entangle many?'

'Added to which, the propounders of such doctrines are generally men of learning, talent, and taste. They have power to captivate, by an appeal to that intellectual vanity which lurks within the bosoms of the more intelligent, which feels itself exalted by the very act of appreciating some elevation of style or sentiment in the teacher. Of old, the world by wisdom knew not God; and now by wisdom they who have known are fast learning to forget Him.' 'Is not this, in great measure, the doctrine of a party calling themselves Young England?

I believe so young England is a very ridiculous personage in some respects; but in others awfully embodying a character drawn by an inspired Apostle as belonging to the "perilous times" of the "last days." We are forewarned of a new class then springing up, and we know where to look for it.

'But now, uncle, to revert to politics

'No politics for me! niece: I have done with them. The two houses of Parliament have achieved two victories in which I do not desire to have any part; nor do I wish to be tempted to vent my real feelings where no good can result from so doing. The upper bouse, by passing the Bill for securing Socinianism in its usurped possession of property bequeathed for christian purposes, has committed an act that I cannot fitly characterize without "speaking evil of dignities;" while the recent display in the lower house on the factory question, has assured me that excepting with a very small section of a small minority, I can never more sympathize, never more

regard them with respect, nor take an interest in their proceedings.'

'To me it appears in the light of a real triumph. Intimidation would never have been brought to bear on that question had not the principle been obviously recognized by a majority in the house. Such a victory was a degrading defeat; and that it was so felt is quite evident from the tone of rancour in which its winners assailed the noble advocate of rights which they will yet be compelled to recognize; for that night's work they must answer to God.'

Ay, and to the country too. There is something terrible in the unobstructed course that oppression is now allowed to take, for we know that though the Lord keeps silence, He is not, He cannot be such a one as they who have no pity for the poor; and when He does speak, it will be in thunder and in flame. What was the circumstance? A British senate had come to the resolution of mitigating the extreme severity of unnatural toil to which English women and English children are, under the present cruel system, doomed. Their better feelings had been

roused and softened the husband had looked on his wife, the father on his children, and pictured to himself the fearful sufferings that they must undergo, if out of every twenty-four hours fifteen were consumed in hard labour, including a short interval for swallowing the scanty meal, and for repairing to and from the place of toil. They had yielded to the pleadings of the Holy Spirit within them, applying the command, "Be ye merciful"; and had resolved to subtract two hours from the disproportionate period, that the mother might pay some little attention to her domestic duties, and the