divine prerogatives is more evident at some times and in some places than others, but never more evident than now, and in this country. The force by which God is advancing among men to subdue all things to himself is true Christianity. In the devel opment period of our history, we have traced this power in every thing good and hopeful to its great source. We now desire to observe it more closely, and see what has been its position and work in the structure and vindication of our government, and how far its special development affords indications of future triumph. We shall look at it first in its several distinct organizations. THE PROTESTANT-EPISCOPAL CHURCH. We have seen that the Church of England came to this country with its first settlers, and was recognized as the Established Church of Virginia and a large portion of the early South. In comparison with all other churches, it would seem thus to have secured the advantage of precedence and position. The strain of the Revolution, however, showed that its organic connection with the British Government was its greatest misfortune. "The war of the American Revolution,'* says our ablest living canonist and historian, 'left the Protestant-Episcopal Church in this country in a position different from that of every other religious denomination in the land. It alone was entirely broken up in its polity. The other societies had systems involving no connection with the English Church: the war, therefore, could not affect their government; at its close, they had but to proceed according to the rules and principles of an already existing organization: very slight modifica tions, if any, were necessary to them. Not so, however, with These extracts are taken, by permission, from "The Claims of the Protestant-Episcopal Church upon the American People," by Rev. GEORGE D. CUMMINS, D.D., now Assistant Bishop of Kentucky. the Episcopal Church: it had been identified with the Established Church of the mother-country; nay, was, in one sense, part and parcel of it. By the war, its government was entirely subverted: it had, therefore, to commence de novo the work of framing a system.' "As soon as the long struggle of the Revolution was over, and this Great Republic was, by God's blessing, free and independent, the fathers of our church were the very first to move in organizing and adapting the ecclesiastical polity to the new nationality. "We contend that this church has peculiar claims upon the reverence and love of the American people; that it is marked by characteristics which render it eminently fit to be a blessing to this nation in this crisis of its history. "The first of these features is the conservatism of the church. With many, we are aware, this feature is our reproach to us it is our boast and rejoicing. The Episcopal Church is eminently conservative; a keeper and guardian of sacred trusts and legacies of the past, which God has ordained shall be unchanging and unchanged like their great Author. "Why, then, does this feature of the Episcopal Church fit her to be a blessing to this land and nation? Because she is a bulwark against the mighty tide of innovation and error which men falsely call progress. This age is most markedly an age of free-thinking, of wild and rash and dangerous speculation, an age marked by the reckless casting-away of the faith of the fathers, and of trampling upon the work of their hands. Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us,' is said of all the venerable traditions and institutions of the past. New forms of error multiply upon every hand. New organizations of unbelief and false belief spring up like the rank growth of a night under the shade of massive forest-trees. Our ears are saluted on every side with the cry, 'Lo! here is Christ; lo! there is Christ' But amidst them all stands serene and calm the church of our fathers, witnessing ever to the ancient and pure faith, the truth as it is in Jesus,' the ancient creeds, and the apostolic order of Christ's Church. Her ministers may prove faithless at her altars, and fall into deadly error; but no personal defection of these can stifle the great voice ever sounding forth from her sublime ritual, echoing the voices of apostles and confessors and martyrs. "Another characteristic of the Episcopal Church adapts it eminently to the needs of our times. She is the very symbol of AUTHORITY AND OF LAW. She claims to be divinely instituted. Her ministry derives its power from God, and not from man. She recognizes divers orders in the ministry, and demands submission, deference, and godly obedience, from one to the other. How admirably is she thus qualified to train her children into reverence for and obedience to authority, the authority of parents, of magistrates, of rulers! "The subject suggests to us the great mission which this church has to fulfil towards the American nation and people, and especially the part we are to perform in the new era upon which the nation has just entered. All danger to the stability of the government has passed away, - danger, I mean, from material sources. But a mightier, a sterner test yet awaits it. Its salvation or its ruin must depend upon moral forces. War tested its strength: peace will test its virtue. An unprecedented career of prosperity opens before us, and especially in this section of the Republic. "What are the perils, which, as patriot churchmen, we are bound to prepare for, and from which we earnestly believe the Church of Christ offers an ark of refuge? They divide themselves into two classes, two great antagonistic forces, Romanism and Infidelity, spiritual tyranny and spiritual license. "Romanism, with its wonderful sagacity as a human polity, its keen insight into the future, has long acted upon the conviction that the seat of power in this Republic is to be the |