gently letting go the hands he had clasped-" Christ, those who live Christ, who live in love, the life of Christ-those are His, let them be called by what name they may, let their confession of faith be what it may There is only one-Christ in God. Have you any doubts? I have none." Then to his wife: "You know that I love you, but my love to you is far greater than I could ever tell you. We have loved each other in God, and in God we shall see one another again. We shall meet again, of that I am sure-in the presence of God."

It was in the early morning of the 28th of November, when his wife and one son were the watchers, that they noticed a sudden pause in his breathing. They were about to raise him, but his head sank on her shoulder-he had entered into life. His funeral was on a bright, cloudless December afternoon-such a day as he had once said to a son that he should like it to be. His favourite hymn-" Jerusalem, thou city fair and high," was played on the organ before leaving the house; and evergreens were fitly placed on his last couch of rest. There was no pomp, no hired show. Only the hands of love were to be about him to the last. His own sons helped to bear him to the grave through the streets of Bonn, preceded by a volunteered military band, playing all the way on their wind instruments soft German hymn tunes. A long, hushed procession followed after; and as they neared the cemetery the voices of the boys of the Protestant school, began the funeral hymn. We can believe that it was all as he would have wished; that he could have appropriated the words :

Sing sweetly as you travel on
And keep the funeral show:
The angels sing where I am gone
And you should sing below."

Lay on my coffin many a wreath,

For conquerors wreath'd are seen;
And lo! my soul attains through death
The crown of evergreen

That blooms in fadeless groves of heaven;
And this fair victor's crown,

That mighty Son of God hath given

Who for my sake came down."

JANE BUDGE.

THE VATICAN COUNCIL AND THE DOGMA OF

INFALLIBILITY.

THE sense of liability to error in the settlement of questions of doctrine and duty, is prevalent in every honest and thoughtful mind. The extreme prevalence of error in the world is obvious to all who are in the least cognizant of the various existing phases of human thought. The extent to which men differ in opinion on questions which a common acceptance of the Bible as the standard of faith and practice might have been thought sufficient to remove from the region of debate, occasions real grief and anxiety and perplexity to the conscientious and the thoughtful. Hence, naturally arises an intense longing for some infallible authority, to whom appeal may be made in all doubtful cases—as a means of ease to the lethargic, and as a source of safety, and a relief from agonising conflict, to the more truly thoughtful and conscientious.

The Church of Rome has boldly assumed this authority, and undertaken to supply the desiderated standard, placing it primarily in the head of that Church, and, through him, in the Church itself. The Vatican Council, in its recent discussion of the question, simply re-asserted in a formal way, and defined that which was an already accepted dogma with those whom that Church pleases to style "the faithful." As the Romish Church claims to be the one universal Church, so this infallibility demands the homage of all mankind. Indeed, that is a logical sequence of the doctrine; for if the Church of Rome is inevitably right in all its decisions, on the greatest questions as well as the most minute matters of detail, then it

follows that all who differ from her must be wrong. Then comes the very natural assumption, that if all without her pale are wrong, she is authorised to take measures to make them right. Hence the alternative offered to heretics, when Rome enjoyed the control of the "civil arm"-" turn or burn.

The idea was, we must have uniformity of religious belief and practice. If this cannot be effected by persuasion and logic, it must be secured by the terrors. of human law. All objectors must be terrified into silence, if not into acquiescence-and if this is not possible, the cavils and protests that will not be terrified must be quenched in the silence of the grave.

It was easy for the Pope to assume the title of infallibility, but not so easy to induce mankind to recognise the claim. Hence the whole system of persecution, torture, and cruel death, made more cruel by all the refinements of cruel ingenuity that proud arrogance, raised to its highest climax by man's assumption of the attributes of Deity, could possibly suggest.

Such is the natural tendency of the doctrine of infallibility, when assumed by any human being, or society of human beings; for without such power of enforcing its claim it becomes nothing better than an empty boast. But the Romanists, so far from convincing the world of the soundness of their claim, have failed to convince vast numbers of their own adherents; and every fresh attempt to enforce it has only led to the indignant protest and revolt of the best and freest minds already within their communion, and the contempt and pity of intelligent spectators.

The reasons advanced for the recent assertion and definition of the dogma by the Vatican Council, prove more than ever the futility of the claim. It was, we are told, to counteract the tendency of modern philosophy.

"The German intellect," according to a recent writer, "has powers of fascination which cannot be ignored. In vain does the rest of the world cry out that German theories are unintelligible nonsense; Europe listens in spite of itself. Just as the ancient mariner forced the bridal guest to listen to his wild, mysterious song, so the great genius of the German race compels the universe to stop in its course, and pay attention to systems which charm in spite of their obscurity. Out of a university established, like Tübingen, in a thirdrate town of a small kingdom, have issued schools of thought which have shaken the faith of half the world. It was impossible for the Catholic Church to overlook the danger. The sole remedy for such a state of things was the declaration on the part of the Catholic Church of its belief in the existence of a permanent tribunal capable of judging of each heresy as it arose. The time was gone when an Ecumenical Council could meet the peril. When each professor could devise a new system of Christianity, and, while retaining the name of Catholic, teach it to Catholic youth, it was in vain to summon bishops from America and China to put down a protean foe, who might have taken another shape while they were on the way. Rapid, bold, unhesitating, modern thought spread like wildfire. This the German theologians well knew, and their whole efforts had been directed to establish theories of infallibility which absolutely neutralized the power of the Church, and changed its constitution. They placed the seat of infallibility in the consent of the whole multitude of the faithful. How immense was the imposture of this plea will be seen at once if we reflect that if this imaginary plébiscite had been realized, an enormous majority of the Catholics of the universe would have voted for the Papal infallibility. What these men hated. most was the existence of an ever-watchful tribunal