"Christian Life, its Course, its Hindrances, and its Helps." Sermons preached mostly in the Chapel of Rugby School. By Thomas Arnold, D.D. London: Fellowes. 1841.

We return with increased interest, and we fear we must add with increased anxiety, to the subject which, in its general bearings on the state of our country and the exigency of these times, we considered in the First Number of this Magazine. With increased interest, because so much has been done, since those words were penned, in furtherance of that great object to the advancement of which we then contributed our mite; with increased anxiety, because the dangers and difficulties which beset the question have been gathering with a rapidity which has more than counterbalanced the attention and the remedial measures which have been applied. And yet, although the manifestations of evil have been more open, and its aggressions more palpable, than before, we rejoice that from this very fact we are able to draw more of hope than fear: for it is in proportion as the good in society prevails, that the evil becomes more rampant; it is in proportion as Christ's Church becomes more efficient, and Christ's people more active in their Master's cause, that the powers of darkness rage, and Satan applies all his efforts to the reparation of his loss. And even if there were no such signs of hope, if the Church in this country were not rousing herself (as, praised be God, she is) to increased and better-directed efforts in the cause of truth and holiness, we have yet this consolation amidst all the tempestuous darkness which prevails around us-that Christ's Church is founded upon a rock, the Rock of Ages; and that neither the grave, nor sin, nor Satan shall have the final mastery over

it. Such considerations as these are well calculated to give strength and to inspire confidence in the humble Christian, who is at times ready to faint under the burden and heat of the day, and to stir up an earnest and active zeal in him, who, in the retirement of his closet and the enjoyment of high communion with his God and Saviour, shrinks from the appalling prospect which out-door life presents to him. But we must beware lest, wrapped up in the sense of our own blessings, and resting confidently on the future and final triumph of good over evil, of Christ over Satan, of which the unerring Word of God assures us, we forget that the Providence of the Creator is exercised chiefly in the adaptation and overruling of man's agency in this world, and thus are induced to neglect the duties, the performance of which is so important. a part of our Christian course. In a word, we must not so dwell on the apparent power of evil and the manifest weakness of our own efforts, as to forget the overruling Providence and gracious promises of our God; nor, on the other hand so rest upon that Providence and those promises as to neglect the evident duties of our daily life. With such a sense of comfort and support on the one hand, and on the other with such a feeling of the urgent call on ourselves for personal exertion in the cause of true religion, we would renew our consideration of the important subject which is before us. It is our intention to recur to it from time to time, presenting it under the various aspects which it bears; now suggesting details-now maintaining principles; at one time dwelling on dangers, and difficulties, and crying needs-at another, putting forth the operation and effect of remedies; and so doing our best in our little sphere to open the eyes of all to the peculiar perils of the times in which our lot is cast, and the necessity of meeting those perils by means not altogether new and strange, but yet varying from primitive models so far as seems best calculated to cope with the ever-varying forms of evil with which we have to contend.

The rumours to which we alluded in the First Number of this periodical have for some time ceased to be mere rumours; and a definite plan for Lay-Agency, in the form of a society for providing Scripture readers to visit and instruct the poor in our metropolitan parishes, with the consent and under the superintendance of the clergy of those parishes, has been laid before the public under the high sanction of the Bishops of London and Winchester. We, as members of the Church of England, cannot appreciate too highly the countenance afforded to the great principle of Lay-Agency by two so justly distinguished prelates of our Church. The necessity of recognising in theory, and adopting in practice, this principle, in a great measure new to us, new to us at any rate as an open and active institution of the Church, had become so clear and so pressing, that we could not fear but that the public sanction of our bishops must sooner or later be given to it but knowing, as we do, the tendency of man's nature to rest on what seems to meet even to any extent the exigencies around him, and the fearful sense of responsibility which must possess all rulers, whether in Church or State, especially in originating or actively sup

porting an almost entirely new principle, involving new developements of social power, we cannot but rejoice that two men so exalted in station, so experienced, and so generally respected, should have thus early allied themselves to the movement party in the Church, and thrown aside that false Conservatism which destroys what it would fain support, by refusing to improve it and adapt it to the changed circumstances of the times. For it must ever be remembered, amid the strife of tongues and parties, religious as well as political, which surrounds us, that the Church of Christ is in itself the living and active symbol of progress and improvement. We would not be misunderstood. We mean not to affirm that the Church is always to ally itself to those who claim the name of reformers and improvers; neither do we mean that she is to consider change in itself good and wholesome; still less that she is so to act as to be regarded as a wavering and unsettled power, with immense influence, but so ill-directed and so little to be depended upon, as to be regarded with ever-watchful suspicion by temporal rulers: we advocate none of these things, but, rather, most earnestly deprecate such feelings and such modes of action. Neither do we mean for a moment to lend a helping hand to that mischievous view which is now so recklessly advanced by Romanists and rationalistic divines, of whatever school, that Scripture represents merely a germ of truth to be developed even to a contradiction of its own clearly expressed laws, by the wisdom or cunning, as the case may be, of after ages; whereby everything like an objective standard of right and wrong, at least in points of religious belief, is clearly removed; and the house which was built upon the rock is transferred to the sand. We contemplate none of these views, when we assert that the Church of Christ is essentially progressive. We merely maintain, in another form, that comparison of our Saviour Himself, when He likened the kingdom of heaven unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until the whole was leavened. It seems, indeed, a truth which no argument can overthrow, and against which it would be difficult to construct even the semblance of an argument, that, as Satan is ever ready to change his plans and shift his position, so Christ's Church (as being under His guidance the appointed antagonist of the prince of this world) must be ever ready to watch the varied operations of her great spiritual adversary, and to adapt her own line of defence to his mode of attack; or, to throw the same truth into another shape, as the forms of society alter, and the dangers consequent on those forms alter with them, as this or that evil comes more prominently forward, so it behoves us, who would be the champions and defenders of what is just, and holy, and of good repute, to set ourselves in array against that manifestation of evil which for the time being is most prominent. Thus, if among the rulers of a nation despotical measures are being introduced, and the power of a mischievous oligarchy being exalted, while the mass of the people are depressed, their mouths gagged, and their powers of mind cramped and cooped up, it behoves the Church to protest against this enslaving of the minds of men as being alike dangerous and soul-destroying, both

to master and slave. If, on the other hand, the danger has shifted, and the inevitable reaction on such principles has introduced among the masses a spirit of lawless insubordination, and disinclination to submit to lawful authority lawfully exercised, then the Church's right position is still in the front of the battle; but she will be found, if she occupy her right place, to have changed sides, not really, but apparently. She will, in fact, still be maintaining the same great truths, still bearing witness to the Almighty principle of law and order, in one case as in the other advancing the cause of Christ against the cause of Satan. But as the evil has shifted from the tyranny of the few to the tyranny of the many, in both instances equally directed against the rightful power of law and due authority, so the Church, in no vain spirit of change, but in the steady maintenance of her high position as the guide of the nations, will be lifting up her voice from an opposite direction, indeed, and against an opposite form of evil, but still asserting the same truth, and denouncing the same error. And thus, as evil is progressive, and Satan advances towards the consummation of the mystery of iniquity, ever increasing in skill and the varied and more and more seductive appliances of his temptations, so must the Church wait step by step upon his motions, ever fitting her defences so as best to meet his attacks, progressing in wisdom and holiness, as she advances onward to her final triumph. Step by step the world is leavened, and the march is ever onwards. During a few years, indeed, perhaps for generations, the Church may seem to be standing still or manifestly going back, but these appearances must be viewed as single waves of the great body of waters retiring while the whole mass is steadily advancing, until that time shall have arrived when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Thus the real conservatism of the Church consists in keeping the good that she has attained, in losing no single inch of the vantage-ground which she has got and this, not by a blind adherence to forms, and customs, and modes of action, useful-most useful in the times for which they were devised, but insufficient, perhaps entirely unsuited, for other times and other dangers; but by keeping steadily in view her own principle of progress, at no time losing sight of the one great end of her being, the evangelisation of the world, but ever contriving fresh means to that great end, ever devising new remedies for new diseases, and providing new defences for new attacks. On these broad grounds it is that we venture to maintain the right of the Church, in any particular country, to make additions to her system of administration; to alter, extend, or diminish the duties required of particular branches of her ministry; and to adapt herself, as the wisdom of her rulers and councillors shall judge best, to the necessities of the times on which she is cast. "Every particular or national Church," says the Twenty-fourth Article, "hath authority to ordain, change, and abolish ceremonies or rites of the Church ordained only by man's authority, so that all things be done to edifying" and "it is not necessary that traditions and ceremonies be in all places one and utterly like; for at all times they have

:

been divers, and may be changed according to the diversities of countries, times, and men's manners, so that nothing be ordained against God's Word.”

It is clear, then, from the plainest principles of common sense, as well as from the views inculcated by our own Church as regards her authority in "ordaining, changing, and abolishing rites and ceremonies ordained only by man's authority," that it is quite competent to our spiritual rulers, to whom in this as in all other matters we would fain look up for guidance and direction, either to institute a new and subordinate order of ministers in the Church, or to restore to a condition nearer the primitive model an order already in existence. We have laid some degree of stress on the evidence for this authority which we claim for the Church of England, because we know the tendency of men to rest satisfied with what exists, and never to bestir themselves in any matter, or consider the propriety of any change, or any additional plan of defence, until the danger is upon them, and the enemy is battering at the gate. It is generally when it is too late that any real change is made in the organisation of any system, especially of one so vast as that of the Church of this land; a system which has done much and worked with considerable efficiency for centuries, but which in its present shape must be admitted on all hands to be far from prepared to cope with the new adversaries which have grown up around it.

We are, however, fully aware, that, even if we are admitted to have proved satisfactorily the right of the Church to make such a change as we have contemplated, there are yet many to be found among us who would be unwilling to stir in the cause of progress and improvement, unless they saw clearly before them the nature and power of the attacks which rendered it necessary to draw forth new weapons out of the Church's armoury. To this point, therefore, we shall devote ourselves in the present article and if we seem to be discursive and to ramble hastily and unsystematically from topic to topic, it must be remembered that we are suggesting expedients, and drawing attention to their necessity, rather with the hope of directing men's minds to the engrossing importance of the subject, than with the expectation of seeing any of our suggestions carried out. The detail will be, after all, but of minor importance, if we can insure attention to the principles on which this movement in the Church, if it take place at all, must depend. The public mind is, we would trust, turning more and more to this point; and the institution of district visiting societies of more or less efficiency, the employment of lay agents, Scripture readers, &c., together with the institution of a society, under episcopal sanction, for providing a supply of such persons, sufficiently prove that no idle and unproductive theories, but a real, practical developement of the system of our Church, will be the result of the agitation of the subject. For we must not conceal from ourselves, that no vague and desultory efforts, however zealously carried on, and however highly sanctioned, will answer the purpose of a vital organisation within and under the control of the Church, that nothing but a widely extended and well-considered system, on broader