112 REAL MERITS OF THE REFORMATION.

outline its frame-work of truth was of impregnable strength, yet was it cold, forbidding, and uncomfortable; it was neither warmed nor lighted by charity. The men of the Reformation were men of truth, not of charity. It was an age which called into action all the stern energies of the man, the warrior, and the defender of truth.

When every nerve of

mental and physical exertion was strung to its utmost intensity, the milder graces of charity were forgotten amid scenes in which there appeared so little occasion for their exercise. Look into the theology of the Reformation and see if it be not subject to this reproach. It is a form of Christianity with charity left out; and yet if this form implied a strength of faith which "could remove mountains," it would be "nothing." It is a monstrous technicality; it is sculptured marble, white and beautiful, but rigid and unfeeling.

This takes away none of the real merits of the Reformation. The Bible was rescued from oblivion and placed in the hands of the peo

ple, as the rule of their faith-a lamp for their feet, and a light to their path. It would

be very wrong to assert that those who had thus newly placed their hands upon the word of God must be the safest expositors of its injunctions. They executed a task as great as any men ever achieved, but they should not continue to be our sole spiritual teachers. We are bound to search the Scriptures for ourselves, and all who faithfully study the teachings of Christ will find a mine of instruction which is not prominent in the writings of reformers. Romanism is like a man full of all manner of disease, immersed in ignorance and mental darkness, in slavish subjection to the power of the church, but with a hand often open to succour the poor. Protestantism is a giant of bone and sinew and iron nerve; full of enterprise, energy, and action; ready to defend the right and to do justice, and armed to battle for the truth; but with a hand more ready to discipline than relieve the beggar. It is very clear that true Christians are

not made so by any virtue in Romanism, nor by any virtue in Protestantism. Both these forms of religion are of man's construction, and, however great the difference in their merit, they both partake of human frailty. Our only safe guide is the word of God in our own hands, the teachings of which in their main scope are so plain that the humblest intellect may find the words of eternal life.

THE BENEFITS OF THE REFORMATION NO REASON FOR PERPETUATING ITS ERRORS.

WHILST it is true that the errors of the reformers were such as belonged to the period, the occasion, and the kind of men who were called to do the work; and whilst it is equally true that in some sense the reformation is a work continued to this day-for the contest with Romish error is far from being ended, yet the sins, omissions, and mistakes

of the early reformation should be as carefully rectified and avoided as any other errors or transgressions. The success of the reformers, in the first instance, was remarkable; but they were far from seizing and presenting the whole scope and spirit of Christianity. Error mingles in all human doings: the reformation exhibits its share. It has been the duty of Protestants ever since, not only to vindicate constantly the great truths brought out at the Reformation, but constantly to extend and purify their knowledge; and, whilst thus holding up the truth, to aim at a better fulfilment of the duties of Christianity. It is to be feared that what was a necessary feature of the early reformation has been too exclusive a characteristic ever since of Protestantism-a devotion to Christian truth far exceeding our devotion to Christian duty. Our preaching and our teaching have been carried on with wonderful zeal and diligence; many run to and fro, and knowledge is increased; the means of grace are spread abroad and resorted to with

116 NO ZEAL CAN DISPENSE WITH CHARITY.

a perseverance that evinces a just appreciation of Christian truth; but it is too little felt that all this comes far short of practical Christianity.

No attendance upon the preaching of the gospel, nor upon the ordinances of any church or congregation, nor upon any ministrations-no zeal nor industry in Bible classes nor catechetical teaching-no liberality in sustaining the ministry, nor any of the enterprises of the churches, can dispense us from the obligation to love our neighbour as ourselves-from doing unto others as we would have them do unto us; nor from any of those duties of charity which are so strongly enjoined by Christ himself as the chief of our duties. Truth cannot save us; even that faith which can remove mountains is insufficient without charity. No zeal for prayers, or liturgy, or church service, nor creed, nor confessions, nor for the Bible itself, can replace the duties of brotherly kindness. It is all vain to call Lord, Lord, if we do not the