ests of human society that the very temples in which she worships minister so largely to the formation of a pure and elevated taste? Is it not something that the most eminent men who have ministered at her altars have been equally distinguished as a priesthood of learning? Can the republic of letters forget such names as Hampden, Buckland, Milman, Thirlwall, Ellicott, Trench? Are not Dale, and Stowell, and Melville, and McNeile among her eloquent preachers? Can you find in all Christendom more seraphic piety; greater purity of life; humility and self-denial more conspicuous, or zeal for God and love for men's souls more apostolic, than are seen at the present time in great numbers of the members of that Church? While it may be doubted if any past age of Christianity has beheld every walk of public and private life among men adorned with nobler fruits of righteousness than multitudes of her simpleminded men and women are still bringing forth. And yet again, how many things are there in the Establishment which must awaken in the mind of every friend of God and truth profound sorrow and painful foreboding! It is the simplest statement of facts as plain to every observer as the clock dial upon St. Paul's cathedral, when we say that, while the Church of England requires of every man who is ordained to her ministry the formal avowal of his belief that he is inwardly moved to the service by the Holy Ghost, the great majority of those who do so minister, scout the very idea of such inward spiritual impulse as stark fanaticism. Professing perfect unity of doctrinal belief, she comprises every variety of creed, from Augustine and Calvin, to Pelagius and Socinus; and from Hildebrand and Ignatius to Luther and Wiclif. Almost as the prevailing spirit of the gigantic organization, there is grasping cupidity and political ambition, and worldly pride and pomp, at which Christianity stands aghast. In one word, there is so much in her of enormous, unmitigated wrong; so much that is opposed to the eternal law of truth and righteousness, that it seems almost impossible to regard her as, on the whole, a blessing to England and the world. But we would not despair. Neither will we, if we can help it, adopt the melancholy conclusion which rested, as a heavy burden on the magnanimous spirit of the dying Arnold, that Sorrow and Whatever of since the Church of England will obstinately refuse to be reformed, therefore must she, without doubt, be destroyed. God is in heaven, and truth is stronger than error. suffering are the true nurses to human virtue. vitality and health Christianity exhibits at the present time in the world, how greatly has it been the result of terrible experiences in the past ages of its history! The church is yet to attain to her highest glory, and receive her brightest crown through a baptism of fire. There are many things in the aspect of the world—both state and church-which men are prone to regard as elements of strength, and signs and proofs that the day which a universe, groaning and travailing in pain together, has been long expecting, is quietly drawing nigh; but which, when read in the light of past history and of God's word, are the most sure harbingers of storm, and tempest, and earthquake and thunder. May we not hope at least, that when the day of trial comes, it will awake into vigorous action a measure of Christian heroism in the Church of England, of whose existence she herself never dreamed; and that, when that dark day is past, the Church of England shall be, what she has never altogether been hitherto, a scriptural and a free church of the living God, and a glorious stronghold of truth and righteousness in the earth? ARTICLE VII. SHORT SERMONS. "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place."— Acts ii. 1. We have introduced here the account of a very ancient and scriptural Revival. The Christian dispensation of the church is inaugurated by it, and it stands thus in the first chapter of church history as a MODEL REVIVAL. As such we consider it. 1. Dependence for it on the Holy Ghost. "Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high." Luke xxiv. 49. See also Acts i. 4, 5. No man can produce a revival, not even apostles. He may produce excitements. 2. The church must be prepared for such a work. (a) "In prayer and supplication." (b) "With one accord." Peter had denied, Thomas stood aloof, and all forsaken Christ at the crucifixion, and so there was ground for recriminations and divisions. (c) "In one place," a visible as well as heart union. (d) They were thus for many days. The Spirit is not bestowed on spasms of feeling. After this preparation the Spirit descends and by his display of power draws the curious multitude together. 3. Doctrinal preaching. Peter preached (a) decrees, ii. 23, (b) sinful free agency in executing them, ii. 23, (c) the resurrection, (d) the doctrine of a personal and descending Holy Ghost, ii. 33, (e) atonement, ii. 36. This was a revival sermon, not flashy and passionate, but argumentative on five great doctrines. As a result many were convicted, and regenerated. So we infer that conviction, anxiety, alarm and true repentance under the plain preaching of God's truth are reasonable and scriptural. And it was a continuous revival, ii. 47. A revival by human excitement must be short, but under the power of God's truth and the influences of the Holy Spirit may be of long continuance. "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by."— Luke xviii. 37. A BEGGAR, and hopelessly blind at that! How sad a case! He can not go to any celebrated physician, and it were useless if he could. He has heard of one, (invalids are quick to learn such facts) who cures the blind. But he has never been to Jericho. Will he ever come? Shall I know it if he come, and knowing it can I gain an audience? Painful and oft repeated questions, suspending his hopes on the frail thread of remote contingencies. 66 But, one day, there is a crowd rushing along, trampling over and by the poor blind man. 'Hearing the multitude he asked what it meant." The answer thrills him by the double fact so briefly told. It is Jesus, and he is "passing by." It is the moment of the man's life, Jesus alone can help him, was then at Jericho for the first and last time, and was even then leaving. What a thread for a blind man to find and follow! He calls, is opposed, calls louder, is heard, Jesus stops; speaks to him; does for him all he asks; he sees the Lord of glory, and follows him in the way with gazing, feasting, adoring eyes. Oh ! many blind sinners sit by the wayside of the world. Once in their life Jesus comes near, nearer, nearest, but is "passing by." How much for them hangs on that fact at that precise time! You were in a crowd, or in some deep sorrow, or with his disciples, or alone with the Holy Spirit, when he was "passing." And you knew he was going by. Did you call, and did he stop and answer you? There is a critical point for every sinful beggar when Jesus goes out once at Jericho's gate. The Christian looks back to it, and so will the lost sinner. It may seem a trivial thing at the time to let him pass by. But opposition should not prevent our calling after him. For they who call are answered. And Oh! the wonder of mercy, Jesus of Nazareth will stop, and help, when poor blind sinners call after him! ARTICLE VIII. LITERARY NOTICES. A History of the Intellectual Development of Europe. By JOHN WIL- Harper & Brothers. 1863. A FORMER Volume, in which man as an individual is treated, finds here its intended sequel, in a consideration of man as a social being. The author proposes to himself the weighty and difficult task, to trace scientifically the growth of the Western civilization to its present stage. It is obvious at the outset that his conception of the subject has an ample breadth, and that he brings to its treatment uncommon stores of scientific, classical, literary and speculative learning. Exploring the roots of after intellectual outshoots, he begins with a survey of the Hindu, Egyptian, and Grecian philosophies and ethicoreligious systems, which concisely and clearly presents the peculiarities of those schools of thought in their successive transitions from one epoch to another. His criticisms and estimates of the Greek philosophers strike us as impartial, though Socrates loses no little of the divine halo with which it has been fashionable in some quarters to enwreathe his "lecherous countenance"; and Plato's Repub lic undergoes an analysis which shows it as destitute of good morals as of common sense; while the former is represented as teaching "that it is only involuntarily that the bad are bad; that he who knowingly tells a lie is a better man than he who tells a lie in ignorance; and that it is right to injure one's enemies ;" p. 107; while the latter "recommends the exposure of deformed and sickly infants, and requires every citizen to be initiated into every species of falsehood and fraud." p. 117. The running down of the physical and ethical speculations of the Grecian schools into the utter infidelity and epicurianism of the age of the Sophists and the Sceptics of that land, is a picture full of sadly suggestive warning. Very great interest is imparted to this work by the clear tracing of the connection of changes in the political history of nations with corresponding revolutions in the development of thought and mental progress. Such sketches as those of the founding and influence of Athens and Alexandria, the masterly resumè of the rise and corruption of the Roman dominion, and the splendor of the Saracenic empire at its zenith, impart vivacity to investigations which, pursued abstractly, would easily become heavy. His pen sparkles with spirit. Thus, of the Mohammedan Cordova: "After sunset a man might walk through it in a straight line for ten miles by the light of the public lamps. Seven hundred years after this time there was not so much as one public lamp in London. Its streets were solidly paved. In Paris, centuries subsequently, whoever stepped over his threshold on a rainy day stepped up to his ankles in mud." The author displays a fine sense of historical forces working out important results. His views of the animus of the old Persian wars in Greece, and of the campaigns of Alexander, as also of the revolution of the West from Paganism to Christianity, exhibit a habit of looking beneath the surface of events. We are attracted by his intelligent criticisms in ecclesiastical history, from a point of observation obviously quite independent of churchly prepossessions, though we are not prepared to underwrite all his constructions of motives and aims. Many of his generalizations are excellent. "The vanishing point of all Christian sectarian ideas of the East was in God, of those of the West in Man. Herein consists the essential difference between them. one was rich in doctrines respecting the nature of the Divinitythe other abounded in regulations for the improvement and consolation of Humanity." His picture of Constantine is darkly shaded, but (we fear) only too defensible by authentic witnesses. On the whole we are inclined to judge that this writer has kept as nearly as could be expected to his idea of a right handling of the early Christian question: The |