EVENINGS WITH THE EDITOR.

EVENING THE FIFTH.

Aug. Abominable! Most abominable!

Mrs. M. Really, Augustus!

Aug. I cannot help it, I am so angry!
Ed. What has awakened your ire?

Aug. An infamous perversion of Bunyan's "Pilgrim," which makes good old John talk Puseyism!

Mrs. M. Can it be?

Ed. Actually it is. I perceive Augustus refers to the PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, edited by the Rev. J. M. Neale.* I characterise it as an audacious and dishonest attempt to pollute the springs of our evangelical literature, so that when the traveller seeks to slake his thirst where for centuries his forefathers drank large and pleasant draughts, he finds the same fountain is made to send forth sweet water and bitter; and may, too late, discover that some leaves of the upas tree of Popery have fallen into a river of Paradise, and converted its waters of life into waters of death.

Mrs. M. But how has this been done?

Ed. Not by a mere parody or travesty, as I imagined before I opened the book; but by a skilful insinuation, here and there, of the peculiar teaching of Mr. Neale's school; and by omitting such entire scenes, conversations, and characters, as could not, even by his cleverness, be distorted into Tractarianism. The book is still the "Pilgrim's Progress," and the first remark of a careless reader will be, "Well, he has not altered it much."

Mrs. M. It would not have helped his purpose to do so. Ed. No; and he determined therefore to keep as near as possible to the original. He says, "It has been my aim, throughout the book, to alter as little as possible; and therefore I have, in one or two places, preferred leaving the allegory imperfect to making a violent change in its whole fabric. In several cases, as in the Cross and Sepulchre, no other alteration was necessary than a little transposition."

Emm. But surely, if he has made so few alterations, the tenor of the book must still be as it was-evangelical?

Ed. It is singular that Mr. Neale meets this as a difficulty which anti-evangelicals might bring. He says, Regarding its theology as utterly false, they believe that no good can possibly come from its perusal; and they will probably think that, though

London: Parker.

alterations may remove some of the more objectionable passages, the general spirit and tone must remain unchanged. I think, if they will take the trouble to look at the following pages, that they will be convinced to the contrary. One or two insertions, a few transpositions, and a good many omissions, seem to me to have prevented all danger."

Aug. And these trifling changes, which are to effect so much in the general impression, have not been hastily made; we are told that they are "the result of a good deal of experience in relating the story to children. Having for some years had the plan of such an edition in my mind,"-so speaks this unscrupulous innovator-"I have been on the watch to notice the remarks which shewed where an alteration was necessary, and the observations which seemed to tell where it had done its work."

Mrs. M. Done its work! I suppose he means in teaching a very different way of salvation from that which Bunyan sought to describe.

Emm. What does Mr. Neale want to make the allegory teach?

Ed. "That the Christian life begins at Baptism; that the Holy Ghost, thus given, is renewed by the imposition of the Bishop's hands at Confirmation; and that the blessed Eucharist is the chief means by which the life, thus implanted, and thus strengthened, is supported and perfected." He then adds, respecting the unmutilated edition of this book, that "there is no reference at all throughout the work to Baptism, nor to Confirmation; while, if the "House Beautiful" is intended to allegorise the Holy Communion, one of the Pilgrims passes it by with only the casual remark from the hero, I wish you had called at the house."" He asserts that the young reader "will find the beginning of the Christian life set forth again and again as conversion; the plank after shipwreck proposed as the ordinary means of safety; and the result must inevitably be, either that he will read the allegory as a mere story, or that his sense of truth must be sorely tampered with by the two systems thus brought before him."

Aug. Two systems indeed. Light and darkness; and Mr. Neale tries to make the light that is in the "Pilgrim's Progress" darkness.

Mrs. M. How great then will be that darkness if he is successful!

Emm. But is it not DISHONEST to use an author's influence, talents, and popularity, for the purpose of overthrowing his opinions, and of teaching in his name what he would have regarded as falsehood?

Ed. The very question this Mr. Neale supposes to be addressed to him!

Ed. He allows that "theoretically the objection is plausible."

Mrs. M. Fatal, I should think.

Ed. Oh dear no. He finds that, "practically, men seem to disregard it; so many adaptations are made by all parties to suit their own views."

Aug. And so a multitude doing evil it becomes right for Mr. Neale to imitate them. When hand joins in hand, it seems that wickedness may not only go unpunished, but be vindicated!

Ed. He also finds what he calls a "reasonable defence;" or thinks-pray let me state his views accurately-that "perhaps it is found," in the following consideration: "The author whose works are altered wished, it is to be assumed, to teach the truth. In the editor's judgment, the alterations have tended to the more complete setting forth that truth; that is, to the better accomplishment of the author's design. The editor cannot be called dishonest for making his author speak what he believes that, with more knowledge, that author would have said."

Mrs. M. I never heard more miserable sophistry.

Emm. We have no need to invoke Ithuriel's spear to detect this flimsy disguise.

Aug. No Jesuit could use more insolent logic; but I am sure he would express it more cunningly. A child would be ashamed of it, I should think. And Mr. Neale is "Warden of Sackville College"!

Emm. It seems, that if Bunyan had changed from an Evangelical into a Neale-ite, he would have thanked his editor for improving his doctrinal teaching.

Aug. Might or might not. Few authors thank anybody for amending their productions.

Emm. Then, as Bunyan meant to teach the Gospel (which it appears he had not light enough to do)-and as Neale-ism is the Gospel-why, of course, old John meant to teach Neale-ism.

Aug. Only he did not know that he meant to do so, being so much in the dark!

Ed. And so the Warden is simply carrying out into fuller and more perfect development the views of the Tinker, by altering these so radically that the very consistent subscribers to the "Thirty-nine Articles," who regard the theology of the "Pilgrim's Progress as "utterly false," may now venture to believe that its use will "conduce to the benefit of those for whom it was undertaken the Children in the English Church."

Mrs. M. I scarcely know which provokes me more, the

puerility of the reasoning, or the maturity of the guile. It is the "deceivableness of unrighteousness."

Emm. But, after all, you have not stated what alterations have been made.

Ed. You may easily infer them from Mr. Neale's own statement, "that the whole story of 'Worldly Wiseman and Legality,' of the adventure of 'Faithful with Adam the First and Moses,' much of the conversation with Talkative,' and more of that with 'Ignorance,' besides continual passages here and there, connected with other details of the allegory, were not only not intended to bear, but are not even patient of, an interpretation in ac cordance with the teaching of the Church. In the Second Part, if less of the fabric of the story is corrupt, there is even more perhaps in its various conversations and remarks which is contrary to the One True Faith."

Emm. As John Bunyan meant to keep close to this One True Faith

Aug. Which it is a great pity he did not do.

Emm. He must lie under deep obligations to the discreet and modest Warden for making his writings accord with the teaching-not of the Church-but of Sackville College!

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Ed. The Preface does not mention all the changes; let me enumerate some others. The "Wicket Gate" is said to represent entrance into the Church by baptism; the bright light, the spiritual enlightenment given by that sacrament." The "Slough of Despond" indicates a "doubt whether the strength promised him in baptism can be of so much help." When Christian has entered the "Wicket Gate" he is led "into a garden, where was a fair spring, as clear as crystal. This spring was full of great virtues, and good for medicine. It could cure those that were infected with sickness, and clean wash away the guilt of sin," &c. Into this pool Christian goes down, and dips himself three times; then he gets a new heart and a new spirit, and his burden falls from his back!

Mrs. M. Not at the Cross?

Ed. No. Mr. Neale's "Church " seems to teach that baptism, and not a believing view of the Saviour's Atonement, takes away the sense of guilt from the sinner's mind. The "Roll" marks a state of grace, such as produced by baptism, which, if we lose, we must recover by repentance. The "Interpreter's House" is explained to signify the catechetical instruction which qualifies for confirmation. The "Dusty Parlour" is "the heart of a man that was never regenerated by baptism." "The house 'Beautiful' is a type of confirmation and first communion; the Virgins' are the graces of the Holy Ghost given by confirmation, and more especially by the Holy Eucharist."

As he climbs the "Hill Difficulty," singular to relate, another burden grows upon Christian's back! When he reaches the "Giant's Cave" he finds Pagan and Mahometan.

Mrs. M. What has become of "Giant Pope ?"

Ed. He must have gone through some magical process, like that of the wonderful spring at the wicket gate, and come out changed into Mahomet! It seems to be a "Mahometan " that now sits" in his cave, grinning at pilgrims as they go by."

Emm. I never heard of such a thing! This tender regard for "Giant Pope" surely indicates some near relationship to him : perhaps he was one of the Warden's ancestors!

Aug. And, naturally enough, Mr. Warden does not like to expose the evil deeds of his great-great-grandfather!

Ed. Another giant is spoken of as "lurking thereabouts," only he is not fully grown up, and merely peeps out now and then to the dismay of pilgrims.

Mrs. M. Can this be meant for Popery?

Ed. No; for the accomplished annotator calls this adolescent giant Infidelity."

Aug. And now you get to the sepulchre.

Ed. Yes; and the second burden, which Bunyan would have stared to see, "grown," as it was "to a great size," falls off and rolls away. "It was very surprising to him that a sight of the Cross should thus ease him of his burden."

Mrs. M. It must be equally, or even more surprising to the Warden, with his views of baptism.

Ed. We will not prolong this painful investigation; for it is a painful one,-compelling us to adjudge a Clergyman, who professes to be a Minister of Christ, guilty of intentional and treacherous malversation of a book, which, in all languages, has spoken to every believer's heart as the true speech which the Holy Ghost teacheth. It is painful to see a spiritual chemist trying so to adulterate the children's bread that they shall be gradually and insensibly poisoned by every piece they eagerly break off their loaf. It is painful to see that same chemist, knowingly dropping into a well of living water some aqua tofana, distilled by cunning which matches the poison-makers of ages now gone by, and to mark that his cheek does not blanch, but his eye still wears its beguiling smile, as the little children come with their tiny pails to draw water at the old and familiar spring. He has done his best to charge each pellucid drop with some poisonous tendency, and all he hopes is, that the water does not look less clear, and that it gives nearly the same taste as it used to do.

Aug. We shall have a new Bible next! Mr. Neale will find out that Paul, and Peter, and John meant to teach the Gospel,