(It is not the knowledge of God, but the love of God, which constitutes the Christian: it is not Christian doctrine as measured by human faculties which makes Christianity, but the perfect love of our neighbour. Men are not saved by their knowledge, but by their affections. Few can make high attainments in knowledge, but all may in the exercise of kindly feelings. Men are less answerable for the degree of their knowledge than they are for the use they make of it. If the temple is not warmed as well as lighted, it is not the abode of a Christian man.

We fear that too great prominence is given to doctrinal instruction. Too much effort is given to discipline men into parallel belief, to curb and restrain men's minds into one or a few channels of faith. All efforts thus applied have fallen far more short of success in reality than they have even in appearance. It is far from true that the individuals of any denomination of Christians agree in opinions; there are, probably, as many shades of belief

as there are differences in minds. It is impossible to bring various mental capacities to one measure; to carry all to the same goal, or to stop all at the same place. Let not the attempt of equalizing men's belief be carried to extremes; Christian knowledge need not be carried beyond the bounds to which the heart can send the warmth and life of Christian affections. There is nothing now so much needed by Christianity from its professors as an earnest exemplification of Christ's teachings. This would preach louder than a thousand voices; this would be more eloquent than ten thousand volumes; this would carry conviction where no human instrumentality could ever penetrate.

139

THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH OF ENGLAND-ITS ABUSES AT THE REFORMATION-ITS NEGLECT OF THE POOR AND THE SUFFERING.

WE admit that other men, clothed with powers similar to those wielded by the Romish ecclesiastics, would equally have abused them. The very first steps of the Reformation afford striking examples. In no country had the religious liberality of Catholic laity been displayed on a larger scale than in England. This munificence, in the course of several centuries previous to the Reformation, had placed in the hands of the clergy quite a large proportion of the best estates in land of that kingdom. The tendency to this kind of generosity, under priestly instigation, became so great that legislative intervention became necessary to restrain it. The immense estates thus given to the church were, in a large degree, expressly bestowed for charitable pur

140 CATHOLIC APPORTIONMENT OF THE SPOILS.

poses, the fulfilment of which the givers supposed would assist to rescue their souls from the fires of purgatory. The bishops and priests, who knew what was necessary on that score, made what may be termed, all things considered, a very fair distribution of these spoils. They settled, as the law of apportionment, that the bishops should have onefourth; the priests one-fourth; for repair of churches one-fourth; and the remaining onefourth to the poor and the other general purposes for which the whole was expressly given. This distribution was, in some instances, or according to some authorities, one-third to the clergy, one-third for repair of churches, and one-third to purposes of charity. At the period of the Reformation, when Henry VIII. assumed the headship of the church of England, all these immense estates were confiscated and conferred upon the bishops and other clergy and leaders of the great reform. All that was given to the nobility and gentry has from that day to the present been held as

private property, without the slightest regard to the trusts upon which the grants were originally made. All that was given to the English bishops and clergy has remained the property of the establishment to this day. Its yearly value is variously estimated, but is safely put at fifty millions of dollars. Not the slightest regard has been paid by these bishops and clergy, any more than the lay grantees, to the trusts under which these estates were granted. The Catholic clergy applied a fourth, or even a third, for the benefit of the poor; the English clergy have retained the whole as their exclusive perquisite. Thus arise the enormous revenues of the English bishops, which are a standing reproach to Christianity in a country where millions upon millions are groaning in poverty, with a clear right to all the relief these riches could afford.

From its first establishment, the English church not only appropriated the funds of the poor, but cast the charge of the poor upon the secular arm, where it remains to this day. It