"Because I think there is irreverence in your language. should be treated in another manner."

Such subjects

"That is what the Mussulmen said to me when I was in Turkey. They protested that, unless I spoke of the Koran and its commentaries with profound respect, they could not converse with me about them, because they were as uncomfortable. But I am treating the subject truthfully, and there cannot be irreverence in that. Truth is unpleasant at times, and even to hint it makes men uncomfortable. Only yesterday, while I was in the newsroom, the Reverend Ebenezer Hermon was talking about the pains his obedience to his call would cause him. It seems that he is leaving Brown Willows for a much richer living in Yorkshire, and I asked him why he obeyed it. The start he gave was truly melo-dramatic; and when he asked if I thought he would dare to disobey God, there was an air of proudlyarrogant humility about him which raised the devil in me. I pressed him to tell how he knew the call was from God, but instead of doing so, he merely said he had thought that I was a religious man. Seeing that no answer was forthcoming, I asked how it happened, that when a small but rich congregation called a man from a larger but poorer flock, the call was generally obeyed; but scarcely ever did that follow when the call was from a congregation that paid three hundred a-year less than he was then receiving. Of course he could only grin his apeish reply; and we all know that when a man gets what he considers a call, he never answers until he is satisfied about the stipend; and, consequently, it is a matter of pounds, shillings, and pence. He knew this as well as I did; and so did they who were in the library, but then it is an unpleasant truth, and many like to have it shelved. Best for all parties to speak it out; for instance, you are come to Crosswood, simply because your good fortune has given you its rectory with £600 a-year. Now, deal honestly with yourself, admit the fact within your own mind, and you'll be all the better for it."

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But surely, Doctor, you cannot mean it to be inferred that the clergy, as a body, would be guilty of defending the devil? You are not to be numbered with their enemies, who esteem them as guilty of many crimes, as well as capable of much weakness."

"I don't know about the guilt of it, neither do I trouble to examine their enemies, but that which you say I cannot mean, is precisely what I do mean. If the devil were in any immediate danger of losing his life, he would make no mistake about finding a safe sanctuary in the churches. warrant that whoever advanced forward to slay him, would be valiantly driven back by the reverend warriors of the Cross."

I'll

"At any rate, they would not argue as the captain did, that a known evil must be preserved because of their depending upon it for bread."

"No! if you mean that they would not openly argue as the captain did, then you are quite right. Still, in the result, there is no difference, and it is their unuttered meaning. They are learned, and quite competent to turn the corner of a grave difficulty without leaving any raw edges open to offend against good taste."

"I don't see the way in which they could do it, for every clergyman holds himself to be bound to fight against the Evil One, and that involves the idea of destroying him."

'

"You are, as yet, but a young hand, George. Your seniors would argue that, Since his creation, Satan has proved himself to be the father of discord, hatred, and evil, a very liar from the beginning; still, it having pleased

Jehovah to create him, it could not be for mortal men to destroy, their duty being no other than that of guarding against him, so as to avoid all his works.' And this would be closed up with the pious reflection that, 'All such mighty changes must be left in the hands of God, who, in His own good time, will work them.' Thus, as for blotting Satan out of existence the clergy would denounce it as an unparalelled piece of presumption."

"You must draw a line between two partics, for it is certain that many among them would risk the results if they could but choke the devil, at whatever cost. I would make one upon that side."

Spoken like the son of Colonel Lester! Yes, George, I believe you would, and that there are many of your school to lend the helping hand I'll not doubt, still there is the majority to go the other road. They must just keep him alive or they would perish. Why, man, if it were not through fear of the devil nine-tenths of our churches would be empty every Sunday. The great body of those who attend do so, not because of loving the service, or desiring to hear the sermon, but simply because they are alarmed lest Old Nick should acquire some right to possess them if they were to stay away. The preachers are as well aware of this as any laymen can be, and it is through that they see him to be the main source of their emoluments. Kill the devil, and you leave the clergy without a friend. As it is the majority of even pious persons like a hit at the parson. It is their fear of the devil which keeps them in order. In short, depend upon it, George, if the devil were dead, the clergy would follow as chief mourners at his funeral, and although he left them no legacy of love, there would be no need of onions, for the big tears would flow fast and freely."

"I do not like your line of argument, Doctor, although, probably, there is truth in it, still you are unusually severe."

And it's time to be so, for with the mad world holding its unread Bible, which it swears by, in one hand, and its cash book-which it does read-in the other, there is ample cause for severity."

"At all events, the clergy are not responsible for that. They deplore the Mammon worship you are hinting at, quite as much as yourself.

"Yes, they curse the God, but bow before his altar. They denounce the sin of getting, but when a golden lectureship is to be won, it is astonishing how many of them start in the race. I belong to the old school, and judge by the results. It was a grand saying that, By their fruits shall ye know them.'

'Aye, Doctor, it was. And I am very much afraid that if other classes of Christians, besides the clergy, were tried by the same rule—”

"Yes! Yes!" interrupted the Doctor, "I know what you are about to say, but does not the evil arise in great part from so many of the clergy setting so bad an example ?"

'Well, well, Doctor! we will leave the clergy alone now. But that there is evil I admit. Indeed, I am much more ready to admit it than I should have been some months since. My experiences here have already taught me many sorrowful lessons. And, Doctor, I heartily wish you would fulfil your half-formed intention of coming to live here, for I should then have somebody to sympathise with, and with whom I could sympathise."

"Well, my boy, I saw Barrington yesterday. He has just come home, and has taken a place not far from here, and so you will soon have some one to sympathise with. Now, let's have a stroll, and take a look at your parish."

FEMALE LIFE IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN TIMES.

IN most states of society, female life and character are sure indications of the domestic condition of a people. It was so with respect to Constantinople in the fourth century. The city was essentially Greek, and exhibited Grecian influence in everything; yet the depreciation of females, said to have prevailed in the Historical age of Greece, was not transmitted to this great descendant of the Grecian race; in fact, not being properly an European principle, it never took root among the Romans; it could not coexist with Christianity, and the influences of Christianity and of Rome were amalgamated in this new compound of Grecian civilization. Accordingly women have found a conspicuous place in the literature of the time. Our readers shall judge how far the portraiture is satisfactory; but we must premise that, while our chief informant, St. Chrysostom, cannot surely be false, much of humble excellence might have escaped an eye that was ever scrutinizing the follies of the great, while his own pages show that there were individuals within his personal acquaintance who deserved even his highest commendation.

The personal charms of the ladies are described far more copiously than their mental gifts; indeed the latter seem to have been in general overlaid by the care bestowed on their outward adornment. Our readers will recollect how decidedly Aristotle tells us that size is one of the virtues of a woman, but this was not less a virtue in the times of which we are treating, and Gregory Nazianzen forcibly rebukes a kinsman who depreciated his wife only because she was too small. This important particular being assumed, more specific claims were requisite for admission among the belles of the metropolis. The eyes must be full, dark, liquid and rolling; the nose straight, and exquisitely chiselled, with nostrils perfectly proportioned; the teeth of beautiful arrangement. Thus much was required from Nature; Art, too, was called upon. Painting the face, and dying the eyes with stibium, were appliances that few women could resist. It required the utmost tact to induce one's wife to relinquish them. "Should she be so addicted," says Chrysostom, "do not terrify her, do not threaten her; be persuasive and insinuating. Talk "at her by reflecting on neighbours who do the same, tell her she appears "less lovely when thus tampered with. Ask her if she wishes to look young, and assure her this is the quickest way to look old. Then, finally, come "down upon her with the warnings of Scripture. You may speak once and 'again, and she is invincible, but never desist; be always amiable and bland, "but still persevere. It is worth putting every engine into motion; if you succeed, you will no more see lips stained with vermilion, a mouth like that "of a bear reeking with gore, nor eyebrows blackened as from a sooty kettle, "nor cheeks plastered like whited sepulchres." Such is the Saint's exhortation. It shows that the dames of the eastern empire could, at least, make their independence recognized, and affords a striking contrast to the degraded state of their successors in modern times. It is curious, too, to remark how, under every change of circumstance, the fashion of painting the eyes has prevailed in these regions; and, indeed, with habits in many respects so dissimilar, their delicacy and pampered imbecility would have rendered them fit inhabitants of a harem. Their early training was deplorably defective. Till the period of a very premature marriage, they lived in the deepest seclusion, and we scarcely discern a vestige of mental education. "Whence comes it,' says Chrysostom, "that the sex is so effeminate, but from their method of "rearing? it is the result of their seclusion, their idleness, their baths, their

unguents, the infinity of their perfumers, and their downy couches." A watch was set upon their chambers, the approach even of relations was almost forbidden. It is to be supposed that in childhood they rarely attended the worship of the Church, by boys, we know, it was commonly neglected. But no precautions could avail to prevent the bride from catching distant glances at her intended partner; occasionally, from some lofty window, she peered after the unknown master of her happiness. This, however, was a felicity of which he seldom partook; the courtship was conducted on his behalf; he was too much intent upon the hippodrome to give himself to such businesslike transactions. The affair was in the hands of his father and motherand innumerable matchmakers. The contract was properly made in the presence of ten witnesses; and by a singular provision, if a wife brought a large dowry, the husband was expected to meet it with a certain amount, which, in the event of her early death, might be claimed by her relations,a plausible method of preventing mercenary marriages, as many would fear to make shipwreck of their all on so uncertain a contingency.

The religious ceremony was performed a day before the civil contract. A bishop or priest joined the hands of the parties and pronounced a blessing; but at home, not in the presence of the Church. Unquestionably the proceedings of the following day could not have harmonized with any ecclesiastical rite. Our readers need only call to mind the nuptial festivities of Pagan Greece, and they have a picture of those of Christian Constantinople. The seclusion of the bride for her whole previous life was frustrated in an hour. She came forth from her father's door in all the disfigurements of paint; and she, who had scarcely known that a world existed, was first received into it by hosts of drunken and lascivious men-refuse slaves, vagabonds, prostitutes. But, in truth, what she had gained was more than sufficient to compensate for the borrowed splendour which she lost. She had passed from the imprisoned seclusion of her youth to a freedom out of doors, and an authority at home, such as modern high life could scarcely excel.

Woman's most becoming position was when she appeared in all the dignity of the housewife, with her maids in silence spinning at her side ; but this is an exhibition of rare occurrence; far more frequently she is in tumult indoors or fashionable dissipation abroad. In one of her troubles she shared abundantly with modern mistresses; her servants were an everlasting grievance; and in the fourth century, the troops of them retained by the wealthy inhabitants of Constantinople seem to us almost incredible, It was natural that an inexperienced bride should be charmed by the multitude of her maidens, but she little knew what it entailed. As they were property, their bodily ailments were matter of ceaseless solicitude; but this would have been tolerable, and even things worse than this-the daily vexation in watching over the idle, controlling the mischievous, appeasing the quarrel. some, and correcting countless misdemeanours. Something still graver remains, and in such a swarm it was sure to occur; at least one would be beautiful. The husband might be truly faithful, but who could brook such a collision? here was the embarrassment of wealth; she must have multitudes of attendants, and it redounded to her fame that they should be handsome. In such a case it is not difficult to foresee the lengths to which unrestrained power and petulance might prompt her. Hear Chrysostom commenting on Ephesians, chap. iv. v. 31, "Let all clamour be put away." "Above all things," says he, "let women hear this, for it treats of their "habitual practice. When they are exasperated with their damsels the

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"whole house re-echoes to the cry, and should the house adjoin the street, every passenger overhears the screaming mistress and the shrieking maid: What can be the matter?' bursts from every mouth. "It is Mrs. So and So beating her maid.' What," continues the preacher, may she not beat her? I say not that, for she ought; but not continually, nor immoderately, nor for household trifles, nor for negligent service merely. "But if she injures her own soul, then all men will approve, and not condemn, "the beating. Yes, if she will not improve, correct her with a rod and blows. "And what am I to do if she paints? Forbid it. What, if she is given to drinking, talking, and scandal? Why how many ladies are the same! But many a mistress is so savage as to scourge till one whole day cannot efface "the stripes, and when the unhappy woman next appears in the bath, all this cruelty is disclosed. Now she is threatened with the dungeon, now assailed "with ten thousand oaths and maledictions; first she is a witch, and then a "streetwalker, and next a ; for, in her foaming passion, a mistress "withholds no insults. She strips her, and binds her to the bed-post, "summons her children to the spectacle, and bids her dotard spouse act the 'part of the executioner. Ought these things to happen in the house of "Christians? Why," he concludes, "why are you all blushing; or rather, "not all, but such as feel it applicable to themselves ?" We fear that this picture is not much overcoloured; the law had interposed to control the unlimited power of life and death, which masters could formerly exercise, but it had done nothing to repress such scenes as these. Constantine had published two edicts on the treatment of slaves; the first specifies the instrument of punishment which may be used with impunity by the master, even though to death-namely rods and thongs; the second provides more explicitly for this event, and declares that the death of the slave is not to be attributable to unjustifiable usage when inflicted by these means, because the master must be supposed to intend his reformation. C. J. R.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE REFORMATION.-XXXIII.

JOHN OF GOCH.

BORN about the beginning of the fifteenth century, in the little town of Goch (then in the Duchy of Cleves, but now within the Rhine province of Prussia), John Pupper, who, according to the common usage of his age, was known as "John of Goch"-being so named from the place of his birth-may stand as our first example of the "unknown heroes" of the Reformation. Little is known of his outward life beyond the fact, that he lived and died a monk. In his writings, however, we find his intellectual history; and they are remarkable as showing how much of truth it was possible even for a monkish recluse of the fifteenth century to perceive. It is necessary to mention, in order to understand the sphere of this man's influence, that he was a preacher as well as a monk, and that Mechlin in Brabant, and Sluys in Flanders, appear to have been the chief scenes of his preaching. With no active hostility to the Church; on the contrary, with a belief in the possibility of the Church and Priesthood becoming great moral agencies and valuable aids to the religious enlightenment of the people, we find him quite content with his position as a Churchman; but, at the same time, not the less keenly alive to the distorted Christianity actually found in the Church of his time, and to the necessity of restoring it to what he conceived to be its native beauty. He was, in fact (so to speak), a latent Reformer; a man who deplored the evil around him, and saw much of truth which the Church taught not. Nay,