Esther went upstairs to her room, and she did not see the farmer again till supper-time, and then he told her that the Squire had come to his terms, and that the barley-ricks were to be his ; “and,” he said, in conclusion, turning to his wife, "I like that young fellow better than I ever did before; he says he is going to try to get a situation of some sort; he is determined not to waste time at Helmsley any longer, and I advised him to keep his determination, and not be beholden to any man."

"What can he do?" asked Mrs. King.

"Ah! that is more than I can say; of course he has had a good education, and he ought to be able to do something."

“I am afraid, William, he has not had a good education. He has not learned enough for a gentleman, and he has learned too much for a working man. The esquire could not afford to send his boys to Eton or to Harrow, and then to college, as is the way with the real gentlefolks. They all got the best they could at Thornibury Grammar School, except Lancelot, and he had twelve months with a private tutor. As for Cuddie, he never took to learning much; he was a sportsman born. One would think he came into the world with a gun in his hand; it seems as natural to him as the trunk is to the elephant."

"Indeed it does! only too natural. I am sorry to say Cuddie Digby is to be seen sometimes in very questionable company. He and Red Giles, the poacher, are too good friends. I often wonder if his father knows it. Poor old squire! He is beginning to look old; he stoops, and he is quite grey; and he is getting the look of a broken-hearted man. He has had a hard time of it, and his poor, helpless body of a wife has never been any comfort to him. He was quite a different man when the mother of these young men was alive. I remember her very well. She was a sweet-looking, gracious young lady, sensible, too, and things went better at the Grange in her day. She was a good religious woman, too; Miss Edith is very like her, only I think not quite so pretty. And that reminds me, Esther, that Mr. Rupert brought a message from his sister. She hoped you got home safe last night, and she would be very glad if you would go to Helmsley Church next Sunday afternoon, and then take tea with her at the Grange, and she and some one else would see you back again. I told Mr. Rupert I daresay you would come, but you would write a line to Miss Digby yourself. I suppose you will go?"

"Do you think I had better, Mrs. King?"

"I see no reason, my dear, why you should refuse. Miss Edith would be a very nice friend for you, and you might befriend her. There is many a little kindness you could show her; and, poor girl, it is little consideration she gets. She is a complete slave to those

younger children; I have seen half-a-dozen of them hanging about her at once. A little talk with you will be a change for her. Yes; you must accept her invitation; you will do each other good."

They were standing now all three just outside the porch, watching the rising of the moon from behind the Helmsley woods. Already it was silvering the tree-tops in the home-copse, and Mr. King was beginning to yawn, and talk about bedtime; watching the moon, or the moonlit stream, was to him something like poetry, "no yield!" He was just going, leaving the two women to their moonshine," as he told them, when the gate swung back, and a tall figure, which Esther recognised in an instant as that of Oswald Uffadyne, came up the walk.

"I a

am a late visitor, Mrs. King," he said. "Miss Kendall, I beg your pardon! No, I will not go in to-night, thank you. I am on my way home, and Cecil will be wondering where I am. from Guise Court, Miss Kendall. Can you go to Florence?" "Now ?-to-night? Is anything the matter?"

I come

"No, not to-night. As soon as you can, though. She is in great trouble, Esther, and she wants you! She thinks you would be a comfort to her. My uncle is going at last; it will soon be over now. You will go to her ?"

Miss

I will go to her the moment school is over to-morrow. Cecil will come down with the rector, and they will give the prizes in the morning; and then the school will be closed, and I shall be free for a fortnight. It would have been three weeks, but I was laid by so long at Easter. I will go to Miss Guise at once, when the girls are gone."

"I will drive you over. I will take care not to turn you out this

time."

"I am not afraid. I will be ready."

"Very well. I will tell Cecil. I am not sure whether she will go too. Somehow, you know, Flossy and Cecil-well! they do not get on together as swimmingly as I could wish. Cecil is too hard for Flossy that is it."

"And is Mr. Guise so very ill ? "

"He could not be much worse. Thank you for saying you will go, Miss Kendall; it is quite a relief to my mind. I know Flossy will find so much comfort in you. My poor, poor Flossy! Goodnight, Mrs. King; I must hurry home. Cecil is very anxious."

"You cannot go to Helmsley on Sunday, now?" said Mrs. King.

"Certainly not, Miss Guise comes before everybody. I will get up early to-morrow morning, and put up my things, so as to be quite ready the minute school closes. Oh, my dear, dear Miss

Guise! if I could but comfort you! But no one but God can do that!"

"We will pray for her, my dear," said Mrs. King. "We can help her in that way, if in no other. Poor Miss Guise! it will be hard for her, but for him a very blessed change!"

(To be continued.)

MEMBERSHIP IN CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES.

BY A CONGREGATIONAL MINISTER.

EVERYTHING round us indicates that we are on the eve of great ecclesiastical changes, both in the Establishment and in the unendowed communicants outside its pale. Those who are congratulating themselves on some results of the recent county elections, as proving the strong hold that the Anglican Church has upon a large and influential part of the nation, and as showing that Dean Alford would " do well to reconsider his somewhat hasty judgment, formed before the elections had tested the feelings of the people, that the day of disestablishment for the English Church is nigh at hand;" that, in fact, the question is settled for a generation, are assuredly reasoning on very insufficient and unsatisfactory grounds. There are feelings at work in society that cannot be expected at once to reveal themselves at the polling-booth. Of their existence and force within the Established Church we find an evidence in the words of such a man as Dr. Alford, who does not stand alone, but is associated with others of kindred spirit, desirous to sweep away everything that keeps up invidious distinctions between fellow-Christians and stands in the way of true catholicity. Outside the Establishment we find the same chafing against the restraints of a narrow sectarianism, the same willingness to revise traditional notions and habits, the same desire to cultivate relations with their brethren as members of the one Church of Christ, irrespective of mere denominational connections. Among more thoughtful men it is felt that the next thirty or fifty years will probably witness many changes in all our religious organizations, and in the attitude they occupy towards each other; and they who are working for this are not discouraged by evidences of the strength of old prejudices, now in one quarter and now in another.

One evidence of the growth of this feeling we find in the desire expressed by so many at the recent meetings of the Congregational

Union for some change in the mode of admission into Congregational churches. There has certainly been no greater hindrance to the progress of independency, especially among the more educated classes of society, than the prevalent ideas and practices on this point; but while many have regretted them, and none more than the wise and sagacious leader whose loss the whole denomination mourns the late Dr. Vaughan-the feeling in their favour has hitherto been so strong that the prospect of reform has seemed to be very distant. With all their political Liberalism Congregationalists have not a little ecclesiastical Conservatism, which the want of any central authority renders it all the more difficult to disturb. All that can be done is to create a healthy public opinion which, sooner or later, may be expected to affect churches as well as individuals. This is what various speakers at the meeting referred to sought to do, and in this work we may possibly render them some help by endeavouring to put clearly the changes which are actually desired, and the arguments by which they are supported.

There are some ideas which are only too common, both amongst Congregationalists and others, that must be got rid of before the subject can receive a calm and dispassionate consideration at all. The fundamental error lies in a conception of the Christian Church which converts it into a kind of spiritual club, whose members have a right to prescribe the conditions on which individuals are to be received to its benefits. We were at a meeting recently where a Congregational minister suggested that every candidate for church membership should be informed that, if admitted, he would be expected to attend the monthly church meeting, that a register should be kept of the attendances of all the members, and that, once in every six months, the names of defaulters should be publicly read out. Now, we are not going to discuss the expediency of these proposals, although our private opinion is that their tendency would be not to increase the attendance at church meetings, but to diminish the number of church members. Men cannot be compelled to enter a church, and it is not often that they have anything to gain by doing so; and it is not probable, therefore, that they will voluntarily curtail their own liberty, and expose themselves to public humiliation, without any adequate return. But what we desire to point out is the extraordinary idea as to church fellowship which underlies the proposal. It proceeds on the assumption that the Church has certain rights and privileges to confer which she may give or withhold at pleasure; that to her are entrusted the keys of the kingdom of heaven upon earth, and that whom she will she may admit, and whom she will she may reject; that, in short, the terms of fellowship are to be decided by her alone. Perhaps many would hardly be content to have their views put in such direct and

explicit language, but this is really the basis on which such proposals as that we are discussing-which is only an extreme form of a kind of suggestion with which we continually meet-rest.

Now this idea is one of which it is eminently desirable that men's minds should be disabused, for it carries much more important consequences than they appear themselves to perceive. The despotism of a church may easily become--we fear, in some cases, actually has been-as oppressive and annoying as that of a priest, attempting to exercise the same minute and vexatious control over all a man's sayings and doings, cherishing the same inquisitorial temper, and displaying the same ruthless spirit. This spiritual tyranny does not become at all the less offensive because it is exercised by a multitude instead of being in the hands of one man, or even because its motive may be purer, and the end it seeks more unselfish. It always grates upon the feelings of the sensitive, provokes the opposition of the independent, and repels from the church the more intelligent. To some, indeed, this last point may act as a recommendation, for they are rather disposed to regard the absence of the wise from their fellowship as an evidence of sound and Scriptural character; but we may be permitted to doubt whether it was intended by the Lord to exclude men of mental vigour and independence from the blessings of His salvation, or whether a system which repels them, not by the Divine truth which it embodies and sets forth, but by the defective character of its human machinery, can be in perfect harmony with His will.

Of course, a number of individuals may form themselves into a spiritual society, lay down what rules they may think expedient for their own government, and exact what conditions they think necessary from those who desire to unite with them. The only mistake is to suppose that such an association is necessarily a Church of Christ. A true Church must not only hold Christian doctrine, but submit implicity to the law of Christ. Its power is administrative and executive, not legislative, for the law has been made for it, and it remains for it only to interpret and apply its principles. It is true that the law does not go into details, and that, while distinct enough on great principles, it leaves the mere matters of arrangement to be worked out by the Church itself; but, even in these, it is manifest that it must not contradict the principles of the Divine law, or lay on disciples a burden heavier than that which Christ himself has imposed. If, therefore, it establish unauthorised tests of discipleship, or enact a code full of requirements which the New Testament, the one statute-book of the Church, does not warrant, it so far departs from the true Christian ideal, and sets up an organisation which, however excellent its objects and sound its general principles, fails to correspond perfectly with that Divine