And this deep Faith, this living consciousness of Christ's presence, gave them their power in the Pulpit. It made them independent of all human favor, fearless of all human opposition,and gave them strength to stand up before the haughtiest court in Christendom, in the commanding attitude of Christ's Ambassadors. But this independence, this fearlessness, this voice of command, were divested of everything like harshness. If they were the Ambassadors of God, it was of that God who is Love, of that God who till the Judgment-day has fully dawned, "will not quench the smoking flax, or break the bruised reed."

And therefore there is a tenderness and pathos in their words, and most of all in those of Massillon, which disarm opposition, and make you feel that there is nothing of selfishness about them, and nothing of arrogance, but that they speak "the truth in love," and plead with you because "the love of Christ constraineth them."

But we ourselves shall find it impossible to exhibit this tenderness unless we are really loving and tender in our own religious character. It is the man that speaks, and his heart beats in the words. We must therefore aim above all things, after realizing the unspeakable importance of our mission, as Ambassadors of Christ, to live so near to Christ, to be so much in prayer to Christ, that Love shall be the atmosphere of all our thoughts. And now. permit me in closing, to sum up the advantages which one may expect to gain from the study of these French Preachers, provided he comes to them with a sufficient knowledge of Theology to discriminate between what is Catholic and what Romish, and remembers the different practical relation which a Romish Priest sustains to his people from that sustained by a Clergyman of our own branch of the Church Catholic. We shall find, in the first place, great satisfaction as scholars in studying the masterpieces of modern Pulpit Oratory. In Bossuet we shall be able to realize the awful grandeur of the truths of the Gospel. In Bourdaloue, we shall find that Preaching is not the field for vapid generalities and empty parade, but that it affords scope for the widest learning, the deepest penetration, the severest logic, and the most varied knowledge of In Massillon we shall discover, that there is nothing even in the drama, so capable of touching the heart, of rousing the emotions, of "purifying us by pity and by terror," to use the familiar words of Aristotle, as the love of our God, on the one hand, and ingratitude of man on the other. And Massillon shall show us also why

men.

our sermons must be studied not in libraries only, but on our knees, in the mournful inspection of our own sinful hearts. It will ennoble our conception of the sermon also. No man can study these Preachers and afterwards regard the sermon (as some 7×9 men you meet with seem to do) as merely a brief talk to women and children on some religious theme, it hardly matters what. He would be ashamed of his own intellect, if it afforded him no clearer perception of the intellectual elevation of the Preacher's Office, and he would be doubtful of his own religious character if the Incarnation and its attendant truths touched his affections so little. He will feel rather that in dealing from the Pulpit with the sinful, the careless, the unbelieving, he is dealing with stalwart antagonists; that he is doing battle in God's name, against strong prejudices of mind and heart, and is met by powerful and stubborn wills. He will feel that all the knowledge he can acquire, all the skill in argument to which he can attain, all the persuasiveness to be acquired by years of study and experience, will be only too small for the work before him; since however small his congregation, he will find in it ignorance to enlighten, doubts to remove, indifference to arouse, and impenitence to melt.

He will realize that it is not only love to his neighbor which demands this sacrifice of time and labor, this concentrated exercise of all his powers of body, mind, and heart; but he will realize that God demands it, that the "High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity," who in other days allowed nothing deformed or diseased to be offered on His altar, and who now calls for our best and choicest in the building and decoration of His temples, demands our best also, when, as His Priests, we stand in His name to plead with the people He has redeemed. And so the more fully we realize the awful sanctity of our Priestly Office, the more careful we shall be of the manner in which we deliver to our fellow-men the message from our God and theirs. And though we look upon the sermon as being for the most part a quiet exhibition of some Christian truth, we shall remember that it requires from us thoughts drawn studiously from the Bible, and life, and nature. And so shall life be one long preparation for increasing usefulness in our ministry; our reading, however miscellaneous, shall still assist us in the choice thoughts and expressions it shall furnish. Our recreations, our walks, our summers' rambles, shall refresh our minds, and store them with abundant illustration from earth and sky, from mountain and plain; and our parish-calls, as we go our

rounds, year after year, shall make us more intimately acquainted with our people, their characters and their necessities; so that all our studies, and all our experience, shall combine to increase our power to set forth effectively that truth, through which, in answer to our Saviour's Prayer, God shall sanctify His Chosen, and save them through Eternity.

HISTORY proves that the greatest influences have proceeded from the smallest territorial centres. On the map, how insignificant Judea, destined to mould the religious future of the world! Nineveh, and Babylon, but cities, controlled vast Empires. On her narrow peninsula, Greece, by her arts, her literature, her arms, her philosophy, her statesmanship, was to impress, and elevate all coming generations, while Italy, during ages, was to rule mighty nations. Egypt, Carthage, Spain, Holland, France, from contracted limits, exerted a universal influence. It therefore accords with the analogies of Providence that a country no larger than England should be the elected home of that branch of the Catholic Church, representing, we believe, most truly, the PRIMITIVE FAITH, and ORDER. When in its unpromising soil Apostolic men first planted Christianity; when Saxon Freedom struggled for centuries with Papal usurpation; when the Reforms of Henry the Eighth were bursting the chains and dispelling the superstitions of ages, it was not foreseen that England would be throughout the globe the colonizer of nations, spreading with maternal influence among her children language, science, literature, the principles of Government, the truths of the Gospel, and shaping with unparalleled power the future of Humanity. However extended the territory of the Greek Church, and however wide the sway of the Latin Church, it seems demonstrable that the Anglican Church, directly and indirectly, has done far more within three centuries than either to mould the best intellects of the race, diffuse the pure truth of Christianity, and prepare our world for the predicted glory whose dawn now gilds its darkness. Her children, remembering the past of their venerable mother in England, and reflecting on the illimitable future stretching before the daughter in America,

should be careful never to diminish by depreciating contrasts her claims, and dignity.

Firmly convinced that the CHURCH in Britain, and our own Republic, has the best title to the faith and love of Christians, we propose to pause amid the agitating storms of the hour, and calmly ascertain what is her relative, and absolute position. Attention, however, will be mostly confined to our own country. If we seem to revive buried truths and controversies, it is because the age has assaulted doctrines once deemed axioms, and advocated principles once deemed errors. Society resembles a volcanic region traced by recent convulsions. Ancient land-marks lie concealed beneath the surface; objects heretofore hidden in the earth are now exposed to the sun.

That our HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH has certain sympathies with Rome cannot be denied. Both claim substantially the same Order. Both hold the same venerable Creeds. Both have Liturgies largely derived from the same original sources. Many of our Clergy have inclined to a rich, and splendid ceremonial similar to that used by Greeks and Latins during ages. There are those among us who admire the strength, the vigor, the compactness of the Romish system, and almost envy its sway over the masses. Many would encourage organizations based on the philosophy of its monastic orders, seeking to retain the good and reject the evil, and looking forward with glowing hope to the period which shall remove all barriers, and restore the original Unity. Nor is it to be denied that there is a small number from whose minds the eternal differences between ourselves and Rome are fast fading. They repudiate the Reformation. They deride its instruments, and despise its results. Nay! they have even dared to insult its Martyrs. It has become their fashion to institute humiliating comparisons between the Oriental, and Latin communions, and our own noble and venerable branch of the one HOLY CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH. What is equally true, and far more mortifying, there have been not infrequent lapses from their ranks to the bondage, the superstitions, the corruptions of the Papacy.

It is not unnatural then to pause, and make inquiries, which our fathers in the sixteenth century could have never conceived would be even suggested by their children of the nineteenth century. Have, we now ask, the separating barriers been indeed broken down? Have the systems changed? Have our standards been

altered? Where? When? How? Has the antagonism vanished to which our Reformers testified amid blood and flame? Or did they grasp phantoms? Did they suffer tortures for delusions? Did they die for dreams? Has the Vatican waived its claims? Have the Convocations in England, or has the Convention in America, carried us nearer Rome? A few years since these questions would have seemed puerile, and even absurd. Now they are demanded by the agitations of the hour. Nay! we are compelled even to quote forgotten Romish standards with which our fathers were familiar in the glare of flames.

Before reaching any doctrinal differences, when the Anglican Catholic looks towards Rome, he sees a wall of separation at present insuperable. The Orders of his Church are silently unacknowledged, or scornfully repudiated. The very fact of Archbishop Parker's consecration is usually questioned by Romish writers, and for the truth of history we have an absurd fable. The most fanatical sectary is not more absolutely excluded from our own pulpits, than we are from that Church whose arrogant claim to infallibility and supremacy was never so strong, so reckless, so successful as at

this hour.

And then have those who treat our distance from Rome as an insignificant interval easily bridged by a few amiable discourses, or a few trifling arrangements, forgotten the CREED OF POPE PIUS IV.? Will they inform us where, and when it has been either abrogated, or modified? Perhaps it may be well to refresh their memories by quoting a few of its Articles. In regard to it Dr. Milner says, "The Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and the Creed of Pope Pius IV., drawn up in conformity with the definitions of the Council of Trent, are everywhere recited, and professed to the strict letter." Here then is what the Romanist SWEARS:

"I acknowledge the Holy Catholic, and Apostolical Roman Church, the Mother and Mistress of all Churches, and I promise and swear true obedience to the Roman Bishop, the successor of St. Peter, the prince of the Apostles, and the vicar of Jesus Christ. I also profess, and undoubtedly receive all other things delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred canons, and general councils, and particularly by the holy Council of Trent, and likewise I also condemn, reject, and anathematize all things contrary thereto, and all heresies whatsoever, condemned, rejected, and anathematized by the Church. This true Catholic Church, OUT OF WHICH