that since those proposals were put forward and rejected, long ages of prejudice, the offspring of severe penal laws and unwise systems of tests have intervened, and that what might have preserved unity in days gone by has no power now to bring about a restitution of the union which has so long been broken. A commission has for some time been sitting to consider the Ritual of the Church, though as yet no great result has been obtained by their consultations. And the spirit of to-day differs so widely from that of two centuries ago, that it seems unwise to expect their labours to bear much present fruit.

The only course therefore open to us seems to be to proceed as would the physician to whom I have alluded. Instead of concentrating our endeavours on any single central point of difference, we must apparently adopt slower, but let us hope ultimately more effective secondary means. We must try to make an impression by removing such minor difficulties as at present prevent direct efforts from producing their intended effect. And believing as we do that God's providence is working out through human agency the salvation of the race as well as the furtherance of their happi

ness in this life, we are disposed to regard the present crisis which will bring Churchmen and Dissenters more together, much as we may deplore some of its features, as a trial-time for us and for them. We look upon it as a time in which we are to be put to the test ourselves, and trial made of us whether we are so far disciplined as to use the events which in God's wisdom have been sent unto us in such wise as to make them result to the advancement of religion, the wider spread of charity, and the promotion of more Christian feelings both in ourselves towards others and in others towards us. That our Church has unequalled opportunities for shewing such a spirit no one will deny. She is the Church of the nation. Her ministers have the privilege of directing their words to all the people of the land. Her national character includes every man, woman, and child within her oversight. If therefore she be true to her mission, she has the whole nation for her audience.

But as soon as we have said this we shall be met by the remark that the Church of England is not at one within herself. And we readily admit that the existence of these disagreements is to be regretted. But it is too much the fashion

to take for granted that the various shades of opinion in the Church of England are entirely of modern growth and betoken a weakness in the present day of which nothing was known to our forefathers. Such an opinion is altogether mistaken. I have already said that the questions of predestination and freewill divided the Church from the time of the acceptance of St. James's Epistle. The same question has cropped up at various periods. The names of Pelagius, St. Francis, Rabanus Maurus, Duns Scotus mark successive eras at which this controversy was active in ancient times. It was waged by the Jesuits against the Jansenists in the Church of Rome, and this same question is one great element of difference between the extreme parties on one side and on the other in the Church of England at the present day. It is natural that between these two extremes there should ever have been a middle party which, while trying to avail itself of all that was most worthy of acceptance in each, should not exactly coincide with either. Thus it has been in times gone by, and thus it comes to pass now, nor is there any strangeness in it, that we have three parties in our Church whereof the two extremes advocate among other things the

views I speak of, while the third occupies the mean between them. In the composition of our Articles at the Reformation the early Fathers of the English Church, aware of the difficulty that awaited them in this matter, wisely left their doctrinal exposition on these points of such a character as to admit to her communion those who clung to either view. Their design was to establish a National Church and it was therefore incumbent upon them to exhibit in their system, as we find exhibited in the New Testament, such a comprehensive view of doctrine as would enable them to appeal to the whole people. Under varying circumstances it may be desirable to emphasize now one tenet, now the other, whereas in a complete survey neither is perfect alone. In writing to the Romans St. Paul deemed it expedient to dwell most strongly on justification by faith; while St. James, addressing himself to the twelve tribes which were scattered abroad, needed to insist earnestly upon the importance of the co-relative tenet of justification by works. By a national Church both phases ought to be kept in view, and so it seems to have been with a wise forethought that our early Churchmen framed as they did

their much abused Articles. They embrace the two extremes as did the Apostles, and so of necessity include the mean, thus deserving, as could be deserved in no other way, the name of Catholic in its true sense of Universal. There are now as heretofore three parties in the Church. Let us consider briefly their distinguishing characteristics in such wise as to connect them with our general subject. And recognizing as I have demonstrated the naturalness of their existence I should feel it inconsistent with the dignity of my subject and with the sacredness of this place to stigmatize any of these three developments with names which have been attached to them as badges of party. It may be necessary for me to speak more hopefully of one section than of another, but God forbid that I should speak uncharitably of any.

The first which for distinction's sake I shall call the ultra-Anglican, I would venture to characterize by its great, and in many cases undue, reverence for the customs of antiquity. This great reverence, which I do not hesitate to call undue, could not be so termed with justice were it paid to the authority of the Original Scriptures. But though the Anglican party