stitutional liberty. Proclamations calling for the extermination of the Jews have been traced direct to the official printing office attached to the Department of Police at St. Petersburg, and others, of like tenor, to the printing office of the army headquarters at Odessa. To counteract this conspiracy Premier Witte secured the assent of a majority of the cabinet, on March 14, to the suppression of the League of the Russian People, which di rects the movements of the ruffianly manifestants known as the "Black Hundreds," of whom 50,000 are believed to be armed in St. Petersburg awaiting occasion for an outbreak. The special committee which has been investigating the agrarian disturbances of the last year reports that the losses exceeded $15,500,000. The Government will advance to the landlords, with out interest, a third of their losses as a loan, that agriculture may not be permanently crippled. Isolated reports of the elections seem to indicate that the peasant representatives will be more conservative than was supposed, while the manufacturing districts are radical. Accusations of election frauds are already multiplying. In some places the electors have almost unanimously abstained from voting for fear of arrest or abuse. It is reported that at Kadinkood, out of 14,265 qualified voters, only 53 cast ballots, most of them clergymen. Eleven of the fifteen delegates chosen were priests. In a district of Odessa it is said that only 40 out of 2,000 voted. Wherever as many as a third of the electorate went to the polls, the clergy seem to have been passed over by peasants as well as workmen.

Free Trade in the British

Parliament.

A declaration made by the House of Commons, on March 13, shows how groundless was the fear that England will at any time in the near future change the policy on which her commercial prosperity is founded. The resolution affirmed the people's fidelity to free trade and recorded the determination of the Commons to resist any proposal to tax food or to introduce any measure of protection. It was carried by a vote of 474 to 98. The latter figure represents the entire strength of the party of Mr. Chamberlain, and measures also the extent of the revolt of Conservative Free Traders from his leadership. Eight Unionists voted with the Government; 25 abstained from voting. In this connection it is not without significance to note that British ship-building, a sure barometer of commercial prosperity, exceeded in 1905 all previous record by more than 400,000 tons, which is about half the tonnage of the entire American ocean-going merchant fleet. Great Britain built during that year 795 merchant ships, with a tonnage of 1,623,000, and 28 warships with a tonnage of 129,800. Practically, all the ships were steamers and of steel. For the same year there were built in this country 560 steam vessels with a tonnage of 197,700, and 542 sailing vessels, canal boats and barges with a tonnage aggregating 133,000. To such a pass has the protective tariff brought what was once the just cause of our international pride.

have 3,150 miles. The Government has also asked Parliament to sanction the purchase of the Korean railway from Seoul to Fusan. Other railways in Korea are already Japanese property. For the Japanese railways the State is to pay the shareholders in 5 per cent. bonds twenty times the average profits of the three years preceding the war. A special railway account is to be created. The net revenues will be applied to interest and amortization of the bonds which, it is calculated, will all be redeemed within fortyfive years. After this the State expects a net revenue of $27,500,000. Incidentally, it is hoped that the nationalization of the railroads will decrease expenses and improve facilities, but there is no attempt to disguise the fact that the primary motive is strategic.

In acquitting Mr. ConSunday Laws ried of the charge of vioin New York. lating the Sunday law by a performance of Verdi's Requiem at the Metropolitan Opera House, the court based its action on the fact that there was no evidence of any interruption of the repose and the religious liberty of the community, and that Section 277 of the Penal Code did not specify "concert" in the list of things forbidden. A concert or an oratorio could not be regarded as included in the phrase "or any other entertainment of the stage" since they were not necessarily stage entertainments. After the case had been dismissed, ex-Judge Dittenhoefer said: "Attention is called to the fact that if the giving of concerts is a violation of the Sunday law, the city is guilty of the offence in giving concerts in the parks on Sunday during the summer."

The result of the Conried case must stimulate the agitation, already strong, for a revision of the Sunday laws looking toward a greater measure of local option in regulations for the observance of that day. At present this agitation is confined largely to the question of opening under proper restrictions of saloons and concert gardens. But the whole matter deserves to be considered in a broader aspect. It is interesting to note that the Roman Catholic hierarchy is making its voice distinctly heard at Albany in the matter. VicarGeneral Lavelle, who doubtless represents the views of Archbishop Farley, has written to Senator Tully, advocating the local option bill introduced by him on the ground that it would furnish a law that could be enforced, for it would be supported by public sentiment, and would remove a source of graft which is bringing great discredit on the city.

Sunday in Massachusetts.

In Massachusetts the law is being interpreted in a different way. To save a cranberry crop its owner directed 400 pickers to work on Sunday. He was prosecuted for violation of the Sunday law, and set up as his defence that it was a work of necessity. The case was carried to the State Supreme Court, which decided against him. Incidentally the court declares that the plea, "Customs, habits, ideas and opinions have changed" since the Sunday law was passed, is of no pertinence. The court proposes to be guided only by what the framers of the law intended. "The word necessity has the same meaning as when first inserted in this system of statutes. It was originally inserted to secure the observance of the Lord's Day in accordance with the views of our ancestors, and it ever since has stood and still stands for the same purpose." If the law has ceased to represent public opinion, it can be changed, and the surest way to find that out, the

court seems to hold, is to enforce it literally.

American Church News.

Bishop Aves and the Merican Church.

The Bishop of Mexico has informed the Board of Missions that the synod of the Mexican Church, on Feb. 13, adopted the following preamble and resolutions:

"WHEREAS, the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America in General Convention assembled in October, 1904, having asked our consent, elected as Missionary Bishop of Mexico the Rev. Henry D. Aves, who afterwards was duly consecrated, therefore

"Resolved: (1) That the Synod of the Mexican Episcopal Church recognizes the Episcopal authority of the Right Rev. Henry D. Aves, and requests him to receive all its presbyters and ministers and congregations under his episcopal care and guidance.

"Resolved: (2) That the Synod of the Mexican Episcopal Church makes this petition in the understanding that according to the spirit of the covenant entered into by the Mother Church and the Mexican Episcopal Church in 1875, the presbyters, deacons and lay delegates of our congregations will be in future, as they have been in the past, active members, with voice and vote of the legislative body of the Church."

The bishop further says: "Upon full assurance of their conformity with the doctrine, discipline and worship of the American Church, and of obedience to the constitution and canons of the same, I responded affirmatively to their petition." The presbyters are to bring the Missionary Bishop of Mexico letters dimissory, and he is to receive them canonically under his "episcopal care and guidance" when the Bishop of Washington's resignation as Provisional Bishop will be accepted by Bishop Aves on behalf of the Mexican Episcopal Church. After the passing of the unity resolutions the Gloria in Excelsis was heartily sung, and the bishop says, "by no one with profounder feelings of grateful jubilation than those of your humble servant, for I am persuaded that the gathering together of our strength around a common centre of union and sympathy, cemented by feelings of mutual respect, sympathy and interest, will redound to the blessing of all who are to dwell together in this land." The synod before adjourning sine die passed two resolutions of grateful appreciation of services rendered by Bishop Satterlee and Mrs. J. H. Clark, president of the Mexican Central Committee. They are sending to the former a witness stone of Mexican onyx suitably inscribed, contributed to by every baptized member of the Church. It is to be built into the wall of the National

Cathedral. To Mrs. Clark they send "a piece of fabric from the native loom, with suitable inscription interwrought."

the work among Negroes, it was resolved to discontinue the appropriation for King Hall, but it was expressly stated that the Board did not desire to withdraw its sympathy or approval from that institution.

New Missionary Leaflets.

The Missions House has issued this Lent a number of leaflets that may be helpful in various ways to stimulate interest in missions and extend a knowledge of them. The largest is an address on mission study classes by the Educational Secretary, the Rev. Everett P. Smith, full of practical suggestion. Then there is "How to Interest Children in Missions," which shows a delightfully sympathetic knowledge of child nature. Another leaflet tells "How to Help Every Scholar to Share in the Easter Offering," from the actual experience of a Long Island parish in following up the children who returned no mite-boxes, or returned them empty. "Suggestions for Leaders of Boys' Missionary Societies" speaks for itself. It applies to boys of from fifteen to eighteen. Of universal interest is the interview with the Rev. J. Armistead Welbourn, “A Young Man's Work on Behalf of the Future Leaders of Japan," telling especially of what is being done for students at the University of Tokyo, and of how much more could be done if proper buildings were provided. Most picturesque of all is a Chinese Bible-woman's account of "Christian Visiting in Chinese Homes." This is a paper read by Mrs. Sung at the Woman's Institute in the Church Training School for Bible-women in Shanghai, translated by Mrs. Fredericks, with some account of the writer, a tailor's daughter, educated largely by Mrs. Pott. It is interesting to note this native testimony that "any child who remains in a Church school for three or five years is certain to become a Christian sooner or later." Direct teaching is not needed; the object lesson is enough. Any of these leaflets may be had for the asking at the Missions House, except "How to Interest Children in Missions," the price of which is two cents.

In the course of a conBishop Greer firmation sermon at St. on Faith. Mark's, New York, on March 18, Bishop Greer said that those who asserted that faith took the Christian away from the world were uttering a falsehood. "On the contrary," said the bishop, "true faith is something that takes us into the world. It is that faith in God which, while it would be lost in the commercial and business life of the day, and would, perhaps, be not seen upon the surface, would, nevertheless, dignify and purify that life. It would not remove our pleasures, but it would take out of them the coarseness that is sometimes

in them. It would not shut the theatres, but it would keep vulgarity out of them. It would not prevent us from talk about our neighbors, but it would tinge such talk with a message of courtesy, kindness, Christlike charity, and take out of it the sting of idle gossip. It would help men and it would help women to avoid those things they ought to avoid."

showed how practically the young Chinese are endeavoring to apply the lessons learned at St. John's. Mr. T. C. Dzung stressed the necessity for the adoption of local self-government in China. "Family Education" gave Mr. S. Zau the opportunity to speak eloquently upon one of the vital weaknesses of Chinese life; while Mr. Y. Y. Tsü, one of the theological graduates, dealt with the difficult subject of "Sunday Observance in China." Mr. T. Z. Koo thoughtfully emphasized the relation between "Education and Moral Character," defining China's greatest need as "a genuine obedience to a high moral standard in public and private life." His Excellency Lu Hai-huan, president of the Board of War, spoke with much appreciation of the work of St. John's on behalf of his people. Admiral Sah, speaking excellent English, presented the prize for military drill to the winning company. The only foreign speaker was the Hon. J. L. Rodgers, U. S. Consul-General, who, coming to St. John's for the first time, frankly expressed his astonishment at the size and importance of the institution and the character of the work done there. St. John's has recently been incorporated, under the laws of the District of Columbia, as a university empowered to grant degrees in arts, science, theology and medicine. In spite of the fact that an enrolment fee is now required of all candidates desiring to take the entrance examinations, the number of those applying for admission is in excess of the capacity of the institution. Bishop Graves and Dr. Pott are anxiously waiting to hear through the Church Missions House of young unmarried laymen, college graduates, willing to take service upon the faculty of St. John's, and thus make a large contribution to the intellectual and moral development of the Chinese Empire.

The Spiritual Movement

in Japan.

The Rev. Dr. J. H. De Forest, for many years a missionary of the American Board in Japan, writes in The Independent of what seems to him a new awakening of the religious sense of the nation. He sees a sign of it in the spirit in which the troops are returning, quietly, without boasting, bringing, in the words of the parting proclamation of their generals, “new honor to their homes and to the nation by fidelity to the duties of peace." He tells how a lieutenant wrote to him last July. "I educate my company with the composite soul of Christ and Bushido." There is no doubt, says Dr. De Forest, "that this war has brought out in a marked manner the religious spirit of the people, and he who would understand present Japan must take this into account. It takes shape especially in memorial services, private and public, and in thanksgiving pilgrimages by the Emperor and his great generals to the Ise Shrine. Some foreigners seem to think that this shows a revival of Shintoism, but I think it is only one sign of a larger spiritual movement, a new awakening of the religious sense of the nation.' He finds that the Christian idea of God is entering intimately into the thought of non-Christian scholars, whose very pantheism is "a large and sympa thetic advance on the thought of ten years ago. "The fact is, here is a nation of ancestor worshippers, forced by world contact to revise its narrow views, yet devoutly feeling that the dead are an unspeakably precious part of the family and national life and power. I, myself, fully believe that ancestor worship is, in the providence of God, one of the best preparations for the Christian teaching of One Universal Ancestor, the Father of all men. The editor of The (Japanese)

Christian World says: 'Ancestor worship and Christian faith may go together. I believe that the spirit of ancestor worship and the faith that worships the one God are not necessarily contradictory. How can Christianity satisfy the instinct of ancestral worship? And what is the effect upon the nation of ancestral worship?' The head of the Iyeyasu Shrine at Nikko, Baron Nakayama, recently said to me: "There is no objection whatever to a Shintoist becoming a Christian.' ”

Injustice to China.

At the March meeting of the Presbyterian Union the Rev. Dr. Arthur H. Smith, for many years a missionary of the American Board in China and widely known for his scholarly books on Chinese social life, deplored the exclusion from this country of the better class of Chinese, who were, he said, greatly superior to the Japanese in character. This was the more to be regretted as the exclusion was not necessitated by the law, but was the result of its administration. He said, also, that the acquisition of the railway grant by Americans and their selling of it to Japan had roused deep resentment in Pekin. The Chinese, he said, would gladly be friends with us; would like to send their men here to trade and their sons to learn. By shutting them out we were playing directly into the hands of England and Germany. Dr. Smith has recently had an interview with President Roosevelt, to whom he is supposed to have stated these views, and, for the welfare of China, it is greatly to be hoped, in view of conditions described in our interview with the Rev. Mr. Littell, that the situation deplored by Mr. Smith may be changed. Incidentally, it would be to our own commercial profit to change it.

Religion in Public Schools.

At the last Federation Conference in New York it will be recalled that a Lutheran clergyman proposed that children whose parents desired it, should be allowed to substitute for the Wednesday afternoon session of the public school systematic religious instruction in their own churches. A similar proposal has been made by a Roman Catholic, Father McDermott, in Philadelphia, and a public meeting in New York, over which Bishop Greer presided, has been held in the same interest. This has led The Christian Statesman, of Pittsburg, to a careful examination of the plan, which, in its March editorial, it condemns as not only impracticable, but fundamentally at fault. Not only, it says, would such a plan seriously interrupt the school work and gather into a single afternoon what ought to be continuous, but by it "the State would abdicate the most important part of her work

as

an educator, confessing her incompetence or disability for discharging it." Most serious of all, the plan makes no provision for the large class of children who most need it and have no connection with any Church, while the division of the public schools into religious groups would inevitably introduce sectarian oppositions, rivalries and jealousy. Finally, "this plan would be a virtual union of Church and State, and in a particularly objectionable form. It would be a confession that the State is helpless to provide the moral and religious instruction which are needed to make men good citizens, and that she must needs turn to the Churches for such instruction. But it is not good American doctrine that the State should lean on the Church for anything which is vital to her life and well being. The public schools are strictly a State institution, established by the State for the training of her citizens. In so far as moral and religious ele

An Impression of Dr. DuBose's

New Book,"

By the Rt. Rev. Dr. Edward S. Talbot, Bishop of Southwark.

If I write a few words about this book in answer to a special request, it must be in no sense to review it, but rather to ask for its more careful and competent review. For this I am quite sure that it deserves. It seems to me to be a book of extraordinary interest for Christian thinkers, and to make straight for points which serve as foci for much of the questioning of today. It combines the independence which creeds are thought to forbid with the firmness which the Creed, truly grasped, secures. To the two most pertinent questions about a book of the kind-the questions whether it will refresh, strengthen and enlarge the faith of a believing reader, and whether it might, at all probably, induce and enable one who doubts or opposes to reconsider his position or master his doubts-a very confident answer may be given..

It has the interest of completeness, the whole subject being kept in view: of proportion, between its parts; of style, for there is a logic and distinction about Professor Du Bose's writing, which makes us ask whether his name stands for a strain of French influence; of spiritual power, since no one could, by mere intellectual force, hold with his grasp, and express with his restrained fervor, convictions so rich and comprehensive; and it has what may perhaps be called the dramatic interest, which comes by watching a high argument unfold itself, or (better) a great subject develop in coherent form its fulness and wealth.

It would seem to me (upon a hurried and imperfect sight of the book) that one chief merit of it is that it deals with the special difficulty of modern thought, which recognizes the supreme importance of fact as the organ of revelation, and yet finds the fact uncertain and disputed. It is the question which faced the Abbé Loisy, and with which he dealt in his own way. Professor DuBose is a less disintegrating critic than Loisy, and he is not pressed like him by the necessities of an elaborate ecclesiastical position, or allured by the flexibility of a development theory. But the point is the same. All the positive part of Ritschlian theology, all that is sound in present-day preference of fact to theory or speculative explanations is expressed by the author when he speaks of "that revelation of fact, which is God's only method of expressing Himself" (page 236). "But what then," men feel, "if the facts themselves are doubtful?" To that question there is obviously no simple and offhand answer. There is always room for doubt in history. Yet such doubt is very far from being the last word of historical science. History is not a collection of unsolved questions. It is a record of facts, carrying with them a margin of uncertainty, and needing for their right interpretation appropriate insight. So Dr. DuBose finds the matter in the great central case of the Gospel.

For him there is fact, trusty and assured, in "the primitive Gospel of pure record," which is to be found within the Gospels as we have them: he starts with "nothing which the best present criticism will not admit as pure record," part "of the objective truth of which they are the

* "The Gospel in the Gospels." Published by Longmans, Green & Co.

faithful reporters." Criticism, then, is fully welcomed; though not without the word which reminds what rare and blended gifts, "spiritual as well as scientific," are required for "a true and adequate critical acumen."

That is the first point; and he lays stress on what he calls several times the purely "reportorial" character of much in the Synoptists. The picture thus obtained is one which can be expressed in terms of pure and perfect manhood. And even thus much, he would have us own, is a Gospel-part of the Gospel-from which many draw life and light. But the next point is that the other element which is found to some extent in their main narrative, and more largely in the Gospel of St. John and the Gospels of the Infancy in Matthew and Luke, he recognizes partly impression upon the witnesses which is in truth part of the facts witnessed, and partly reflective interpretation of their meaning. He believes that Christian thought questioned itself with unflagging insistence as to the real content and inner significance of what is reported and believed. The first result was to discern the value of Christ's work-what He did; the second found the meaning of His PersonWho He was. This operation the author regards as both inevitable and legitimate. He finds its fullest result rightly given as he tells his readers frankly in his first page in the writings of St. Paul (and he promises a second volume upon this). And he thinks, if I understand him rightly, that we are in a position in part to traverse the same course, and reach the same goal for ourselves (page 207). The perfectly human phenomenon of Jesus' life compelled them, and compels us, to the conclusion as to something (what it is, perhaps discerned by gradual steps) which was behind it and produced it. "The necessity for believing in a higher nature or a higher personality in Jesus Christ is a much deeper and a much truer one than can be drawn from particular statements to that effect either on the part of our Lord Himself or of His biographers and interpreters" (page 207).

Very delightful is the insistence on the truth and validity of this process pushed to the end, along with the recognition of the value which imperfect or partial forms of it have for individuals and multitudes who cannot go all the way. Very generous, though not more generous than true, is the admission that those who have the whole often allow it to hide the beauty of the parts, and have to learn from the believers in fragmentary Gospels the preciousness of this or that fragment of the one Gospel.

In such a treatment profound interest must, of course, centre round the two matters of the Resurrection and the Virgin Birth, as related in the Gospels. Professor DuBose's treatment of them is not quite easy, some will complain that it is not quite distinct. I think the complaint mistaken. But leaving to be read in his own pages what deserves the most careful reading, I wish to lay stress upon the way in which he sets the problems, and the help which he gives by putting their parts in true proportion. He does not rest either on the mere ground of record. He sees in the Resurrection something which in the sphere of outward event gave "the

palpable and vivid testimony of .. physical reappearance" to a spiritual fact which is the sum and crown of all the power of Jesus' life and work. He sees the strongest support of the story of the Birth in the consciousness of the first generation who received and transmitted it, and after them of believers generally that Jesus was not one man among many (as He would have been if born in the ordinary way) that His Human Self was "not that of only one of us, but of us all."

I will not try to say more, but will end with the hope that a great circulation among intelligent and reverent thinkers may await so good and rich a book.

An Italian Bishop on

Church and State.

From a Recent Pastoral of Bishop Bonomelli, of Cremona.

(Translated for THE CHURCHMAN). The whole system of obligatory religious practices, accompanied by either material or moral sanctions, formed characters which were weak, timid and narrow, exposed to pretence and hypocrisy, inclined to excesses or openly rebellious. Religion, which chiefly means worship of the mind and heart, ought to be the free tribute of the will. This alone is acceptable to God, and it receives serious harm when these principles are violated. Certainly preach with intensity the duty of religious observances; show their advantage and also their necessity, but let there never be constraint, under any form. This separation of the State from the Church will cause some injuries, but it will also produce greater sincerity, franker characters, a more generous faith, a deeper piety, a religion more virile, more sure of itself. We must recognize facts. With the development of public education the sentiment of personal worth is increased. Conscience becomes more active, more delicate and imposes greater consideration. There is nothing of which man is more jealous than liberty of conscience. Religion and the practices which it inspires are matters which directly touch the conscience, and on that account it is necessary to respect it scrupulously. Whoever desires to secure attention by force, by the weight of authority, by moral pressure, runs the risk of offending and of irritating the conscience, and so of attaining a quite contrary effect.

The system of separation frankly adopted in our social life, without offending the imprescriptible rights of the truth, will certainly have a beneficial influence on governments, and on peoples, which are heretical and schismatic or without the faith. It will make them less hostile, less restive in entering on the road of religious liberty. Will not this be an advantage?

Even

Besides there is another advantage-a man, a sect, a people, when placed in difficult conditions, and forced by some struggle to call on their own efforts, will find what they are looking for. those who think they know them will be surprised and will find them.transformed. I am profoundly convinced this will happen to the Church also, and among the clergy in whom the Church is realized and is reduced to practice. As long as the Church could count on governmental protection and on the old legal organism, it did not feel the need of extraordinary efforts. Under the shadow of State protection, under the aegis of the civil code, and with confidence in its own authority, it

appeared to be able to live quietly and certain of its future. Establish Separation, and under the system which the Church will think out for itself, just as the State looks out for itself, things will be profoundly changed. The Catholic clergy and laity, deprived of those aids which they were before able to have, will, in their education, in their beneficence, in their associations and institutions, and in all the works and holy activities of Christian charity, appeal to sources which they consider more desirable, if such exist; if they do not exist they will create them.

I have never been able to understand why there are a great number of Catholics (especially among the clergy) who, pious and full of righteous aims as they are, never stop lamenting the transformation of society. They look upon it as entirely dark, as the end of the world, as the final ruin of every moral and religious principle, as an unavoidable catastrophe. Would it not be better to put a stop to these eternal complaints, to look society in the face, to regard, too, somewhat the very splendid sides it presents to us, and throw ourselves vigorously in its midst, using the liberty which we have of doing good; a great liberty it is, such as perhaps never before existed?

It appears to me that those who are disgusted by modern society are somehow confounding things. It seems to me that, without thinking over the matter, they call license their not having themselves alone the exclusive liberty of doing what they want. What they want may be good, but it is the liberty of privilege, as they had it in other days, and it means the same as preventing other people from the exercise of their own liberty.

Let each one then enter in the arena of combat, and instead of filling the air with lamentation, let him take his share of liberty and exercise his rights; let him give the contribution of his mind and heart to the cause of religion. The struggle is entirely a moral one. It is not material. Victory will come to him who has most strenuously fought under the banner of liberty one and common to all. This is the great advantage of the new period of separation of the State from the Church-liberty for all.

The Church reduced to its own strength alone, which must be a moral quantity, will leave nothing untried in reconquering its lost ground. By its moral influence it will make up for the legal support

which has been taken from it.

To deserve the confidence and the love of modern society, and so gain over it a just moral influence, it must enter into its views; it must love and desire what civilized life loves and desires, provided, I need hardly say, that it is lawful and of good report.

At the bottom of man's heart there exists a living, noble and inextinguishable love for what we call our fatherland, which is, as it were, a derivation and extension of the worth and rights of fatherhood. By this feeling, by this love, how many great miracles of self-sacrifice, of abnegation, of heroism, have been produced in all ages and parts of the world, among peoples ancient and modern, civilized and barbarous.

How are we to hope that the people will love and reverence priests who appear indifferent to their own country, and who do not unite with them in loving it? As we should love the Church and be sensitive to its glory, so after the Church we should love our country and be sensitive and jealous of its achievements.

Those who study history know that the principal if not the only cause of the schisms and the heresies which have torn so many countries from the Catholic Church was the spirit of nationality and

of the fatherland, falsely offended, it may have been, against the Church, but when exaggerated and adulterated, it led to a direct revolt from the Church. For the Catholic was substituted the National Church. The Church of Christ is, and ought to be, as universal as the truth, as justice, as science, never national. For this reason the Church in its authority and in its action should not have frontiers. It ought not to be restricted to this or that people. It should occupy a plane above all earthly interests, above all national antipathies and sympathies. It should take every safeguard in escaping from them. Not to do so, would be a danger and a temptation.

Our Society not only demands the love of country which is founded on nature and blessed by religion, but it loves and also wants liberty in all its forms and political developments, civil, social, etc. Why should we not aid as far as possible this spirit, this irresistible tendency, in itself the noblest one of our time?

As regards forms of government, the Church was, is, and always will be, most generous. With an indifferent eye it sees

them change, become broader or more restricted, and leaves them in full control of political powers and of popular votes. Why should not we imitate it? In so doing lies our interest, and we shall show that we do not want to separate ourselves from our people. Let us accept, respect and love all forms of government which the people originate. We have no grounds to oppose the people or to separate ourselves from them in these matters.

In general, we Church people, by a certain habit, by tradition, hold rather to the side of authority than to that of liberty. As the people by natural inclination and necessity have more sympathy for liberty than for authority, the result is that we are running a risk of separating ourselves from them and almost fighting with them to our common loss. Let us never forget that liberty as well as authority comes from God. Both have the same origin; both are necessary. Authority can and should relinquish its pressure with the progress and development of public intelligence and by reason of the power which liberty has acquired of controlling itself by itself.

Each Friday I receive The Church Times from its office in London; each Saturday or Sunday THE CHURCHMAN reaches me from New York. Without any disparagement of their rivals, one is justified in regarding these two journals as being, on this and the other side of the Atlantic, respectively, the leading representatives of their class. Concerning the status of THE CHURCHMAN no further word need be said in its columns, while, be the merits or defects of The Church Times what they may, its circulation is probably as great as that of all other Church of England newspapers put together. Reading these two journals week by week, and glancing not infrequently at such contemporaries of theirs as The Guardian, Record and Living Church, one is led inevitably to make comparisons, to notice the points of resemblance and divergence-both of them eminently suggestive between the Church journalism of this country and that of the United States.

And your readers will not suspect me of idle compliment if at the outset I discharge a debt of gratitude by saying with what pleasure THE CHURCHMAN is welcomed in an English home. I speak now less of the technical skill which goes to the making of the paper-though that has a very direct appeal for one who himself is an editor-than of its general tone and The Church which it repatmosphere. resents is so evidently alive. Through all the pages there is a note of strength and sane optimism-not the optimism of complacent officialdom, satisfied that all is for the best in this best of ecclesiastical systems (that note is more than sufficiently audible from one quarter of our own Church press!)-but the optimism based upon a reasoned survey of things as a whole, which sees below the ruffled surface, with its passing foam of controversy, into the great depths of eternal truth beneath. In other words, you are less preoccupied with trifles.

Some months ago I read with considerable amusement in your columns the report made to the Washington Churchman's League by three American clergy, who had lately visited England. To their frank surprise, they had found the Church here full of life and vigor; and their surprise was mainly due to "the depressed tone of the English ecclesiastical press," which "would lead a stranger to expect very unfavorable conditions." In a flash one realized how true was this remark, how appositely the epithet "depressed" was employed to describe the tone of much of our Church journalism. "Querulous," indeed, might be used as an alternative adjective.

So many of our articles and letters seem to be the work of a man with a grievance. In the light of calm reflection, the issues at stake do not seem to be very momentous. But the writer is desperately in earnest concerning them. He attacks bitterly those who differ from him. He is quite convinced that, unless his own view gains universal acceptance-which is, as he admits, extremely improbable-huge disasters will overtake the English Church. And language

of this sort is not limited to the smaller men. It was very prominent, for example, in the later correspondence of Denison, Liddon and Magee. Their points of view were different in many respects, but they were quite at one in anticipating fearful calamities for the Church within a period which has long since passed away and left us scatheless. Neither the intrigues of a political party nor the publication of "Lux Mundi" have extinguished Christianity in our midst. Nowadays, indeed, most dire results are implied as probable by reason of much lesser influences than these. A bishop has written a not very courteous letter to one of his extreme clergy, or a wicked ritualist has lighted an extra pair of candles, and therefore, according to the bias of the paper, either "our Catholic heritage is endangered," or "the subtle poison of the Romanizing