that we shall read history only in the light of revelation. But what aspect of the character of the creature is entitled to compete for a moment with that in which he is viewed by the Creator? To the rescued child of Adam what so vital as the great subject of his redemption? To the human being, who, if he is to live permanently, must live by a new life, what matter the concerns and the history of the former state, except in an instrumental and subordinate capacity? We ought indeed to be on our guard against that morbid teaching, which inculcates an universal recoil from earthly objects as the true law of general morality; which treats this life on earth as if it were a mere accident of our being: and perceives nothing but empty vision in all its impressive and pregnant experience. On the contrary, it is an ordained and necessary part of the development of man: and when its regulation is committed to right laws, it is in harmony much more than in opposition to the future and untroubled existence, which awaits the faithful members of Christ. But still it remains true, that, great as is the importance of our civil and social life, it is not an essential but an instrumental importance: it is important for that which it yields and generates, not for that which it is; and all its influences are real and of weight, only when we take into calculation something that lies without it and beyond it..

3. It is in the history of the Church that we have the final consummation of all human destinies. Whatever we are, or have, or do, is important, at least is

beneficially important, only in connexion with the religious bearing of our lives. Every gift and ornament of the human character is either pernicious, or useless, or at best fragile and unenduring, unless it be sanctified and stamped with permanence by a vital union with the spirit of religion. Every form of loveliness, which belongs to this world alone, must pass away with it; and the beautiful and graceful things we idolize are but like the fillets that once bound the temples of the sacrificial victim, unless we obtain for them a passport to the better world, by applying to them that perpetuating power of religion, which, blending these lighter with the higher and holier qualities, rescues them from abuse; and, removing them from their dedication to the purposes of pride and selfishness, appoints them to serve God each according to its capacity.

Thus, from being mischievous, do temporal gifts and talents become valuable. They are estimated indeed only at their proper worth, but in that measure they are blessed by God, and acceptable to Him. The common tenor of daily life affords not to the philosophical and sagacious mind alone, but to any man who will look for them, continual occasions for the exercise of duty, though often upon å subject matter apparently unconnected with it: purity, integrity, courage, patience, diligence, self-command, may be fed and strengthened amid the humblest labours of each succeeding hour, though of course it is in the acts of direct duty or worship that the mental powers

and affections have their highest honour and reward; and so the whole circle of human experience is chiefly to be viewed with reference to its religious results. Our relations to Godward are those which should occupy the largest share in our attention, as they will exercise the most determining influence on our destiny, and these are they which compose the history of the Church; for it is in the Church that we have our religious life, derived to us not as individuals, but by virtue of incorporation into her body. In her alone the world is loved, and in her, for the sake of her head, the Redeemer.

4. Further, as secular history will in the natural course of things be gathered from contemporary observations, first recorded with the advantages of proximity, and then reduced into order with those of comprehensive and impartial contemplation: so, in the history of religion, we ought merely to consider not only the records of the past, with which our concern is comparatively remote, but also those peculiarities and variations which are actually beneath our eye, which belong to the circumstances and persons of our own time, and by which perhaps in more than trifling particulars the forms of our own belief, and thus of our own character, are determined. And the habit of observation which should arrest and embody some of the religious characteristics of the period as they rise or ripen or decline, and the pen which should record them with fidelity, might be found to render useful service to truth.

5. It may possibly be objected that these remarks

tend towards the error of those who treat religion as being in its essential as well as its minor parts a progressive science, not only capable of extension in its store of facts and in its secondary laws, but also liable to fundamental change in its fundamental principles. Certainly I would deny the subjective immobility of any religious system. The Roman Church, whatever may have been said of it by some among its extreme foes or friends, is not one at all times, nor in all places at one time. Those communities which admit the ultimate right of private judgment may be regarded as still more exposed to fluctuation; but the English Church, in recognising along with, though subordinately to, the Scriptures, the authorised interpretations of primitive Christian antiquity, appears to proceed upon the principle that the Church of Christ has an infallibility in some fixed body of truth, and as a necessary consequence of that infallibility, changelessness in the profession of the truth so held. But as, however, there are fallings away from essential truth, and as this perpetuity is not absolutely assured to any particular portion of the Church, so there are also changes silent and unperceived, originating in some secret tendency, some collateral circumstance, or some apparently trivial enactment; and which, even where they do not touch the vital parts of religion, may nevertheless, in a thousand different degrees, have materially influential consequences in marring or cherishing its growth, in obstructing or facilitating its operation.

6. But it may fairly be required of those who hold

strong views upon the fundamental immutability of Christian truth, that they should be very explicit in stating the extent of the object contemplated, when they come forward avowedly not for the sole purpose of enforcing what is already acknowledged, but likewise with the endeavour to reanimate the perception of some things which have been neglected, or even for a time denied. They may be required to show whether in any and in what sense they hold the theory of progression in religion; and whether, or under what limitations, they mean to leave room for the inference, that they would make the propositions they maintain conditions of Christian union.

7. Along with the changelessness then of the Church in the fundamental truths of the Gospel, let us observe that there is ample space for capricious variation in the methods by which those truths are followed out to their consequences, or combined with one another, or with minor truths. It is therefore no reproach to religion that her external aspect on earth, and even certain of the modifications of her internal character, should perpetually appear to be undergoing alteration. First, because she has little or no practical hold on the hearts of most of those whose opinions nevertheless count in the mass, and contribute to form the fashion of the day. Next, because when we consider what is divine truth on the one hand, and what the human nature, its depository, on the other, we see that the true cause for wonder is in the conservation of the essence, and not in the hazards, the assaults, the