engineers, but she has followed a plan of her own. When there is an eclipse of the sun in China, the Chinese think, or used to think, that it is attacked by some terrible monster, and they go through a ceremony of beating their heads upon the ground, and other insane gymnastics, which they call "saving the sun." And so, when Christianity is assailed and is overshadowed by some passing cloud of persecution or unbelief, there is always a coterie of blockheads who seem to think that the obscurity can only be removed by the exercise of their craniums, and that in times of danger there is no road of escape except upon this wooden pave

ment.

But the old path, where is the good way, is the patient continuance in well-doing, the faith which worketh by love, love which endureth all things, and learns what a noble thing it is to suffer and be strong. There are already firstfruits on this deeply-rooted tree. The Church of England was aristocratic and exclusive; she is becoming more and more democratic and social. She was the Church of the rich; it is her chief enterprise, her most prayerful ambition, now, that the poor should have the Gospel preached to them, and that the multitude should hear her, as they heard her Master, gladly. She knows that

"a peasant may believe as much

As a great clerk, and reach the highest stature"; and that He, who made all, is no respecter of

persons.

She was identified with one side only of our legislative chamber; she puts piety before politics now. She is loyal and true, because the powers that be are ordained of God, and will render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's, but she will put God first. "Honour alike," wrote Dean Hook, your Father, the State, and your Mother, the Church; but if your Father strike your Mother, you must take your Mother's part."

There was a time when she relied upon her riches, and loved titles and ease; but she is labouring now in the streets and lanes of the city, in sick rooms and mourners' homes, in the orphanage, and the penitentiary, for an inheritance which fadeth not away.

She is ceasing to believe in constraint, intimidation, interdict, and excommunication. I remember when rates for the ordinary expenses and repairs of the church were paid grudgingly and of necessity, through legal constraint, by those who were not of her communion; now she bids her children, as St. Paul bade them, to make their offertory on the first day of the week, as every man is disposed in his heart, and the amount collected is increased a hundred-fold.

More and more she is proving, as well as teaching, the reality of those great truths which are so commonly professed in precept, but so rarely exemplified in practice, the power of the Word, of the means of grace, the ministry, and intercessory

prayer. Her fasts and festivals are once again something more than names. She is removing the Mitre from her forks and spoons, from the liveries of the footman and the groom, and placing it, where it ought to be, upon the head of the Bishop.

In this spirit, this combination of zeal and humility, we may hope to conciliate those who are only more and more estranged by the bitterness and rancour of debate. Such charity not only hopeth, but obtaineth all things. There is a story of one of our country squires, a great sportsman, and something of an autocrat, not only at his breakfast table, but everywhere else, that he indignantly denounced the introduction by a new vicar of additional and more reverent services. He declared the restoration of a daily service to be popish and preposterous, but when his attention was drawn to the words at the beginning of the Prayer Book, "The Order of Morning Prayer to be said daily throughout the year," being a just man he withdrew his condemnation. More than this, when he saw his pastor daily engaged in tending his sheep, and when he heard of him, as time went on, as winning "golden opinions from all sorts of men," he began not only to esteem him very highly in love for his work's sake, but to like the way in which his work was done. "He's too high," he said to a friend, "but he's so good and so earnest (and he can ride, you know), and he has so much to say for what he does, that I mean to give him all the

support in my power; but," he added, checking himself, as though some restraint must be placed upon his ardour, "I should like to shoot that Server."

But he did not shoot him. It may be that some of our younger clergy are a little too fond of illuminations, and, as we called it in childhood, dressing up, but excess of light is better than gross darkness, and Samuel in his linen ephod, standing as appointed before the company of the prophets, invites the reverence which is repelled by the wild words and profane behaviour of Saul,

In all things forbearing one another and forgiving one another, we shall learn not only mutual toleration, but mutual respect and affection; and they who love the Saviour in sincerity will repeat His prayer that we may all be one in the good time of the Almighty, and here and now may, in unity of spirit work together, despite the strife of tongues, and the roar of the battle, and the sighs of poverty, and the cries of pain, in sure and certain hope.

"Through the dark future, through long generations,

The echoing sounds grow fainter, and then cease,
And, like a bell, with solemn sweet vibrations,

I hear once more the voice of Christ say, 'Peace!'"

VIII.

EDUCATION.

The chief contention-A mere secular education has not been a success-Evidence at home and abroad-Effects of the "cramming" system-Adaptation-The classics-Technical schools-Ladies and gentlemen.

EDUCATION is the subject next in importance to Religion, and though in our estimation, who believe, as Christians, that we are to be educated in this world for a better, the two are inseparable, there is a fierce disputation now in England, not only how far this combination is essential, but whether it should be maintained or dissolved. The main object of contention is not to eliminate Christianity, not, like the Gadarenes, to beseech its Founder to depart out of our coasts, but to decide how much and by whom it shall be taught. It is not, in reality, for the suppression of principles, but for the supremacy of parties. Men are still of like passions with those disciples, of whom it is recorded that, more than 1800 years ago, there was a strife among them, which should be the greatest. There are many who