ments of the day; but the strong tendency to extremes, so apparent of late time, seems to demand the word of caution and of warning as to the direction of the current which has got hold of us. It has been said that "a live Methodist is better than a dead Quaker," and judging from what is passing round us, this truism may almost be accepted as the moving principle of those who are so actively stimulating the fresh religious feeling which is undoubtedly existing amongst us. The results of a policy apparently founded on this indisputable axiom, are strikingly described by an impartial writer (not a Friend), who attended a recent Yearly Meeting in Indiana. He says, "It is evident to a careful observer, that sentimental religion is displacing, to some extent, the practical and genuine characteristics which have given the Society of Friends its prestige and influence!" If there is any truth in this statement we should be guilty of something worse than error, to neglect the warning which it implies.

But without saying a word against "live Methodism," which has done, and is doing, good work in the world; and certainly without offering a syllable of defence for "dead Quakerism," which is dismal death itself, we are yet happy in the belief that these are not the only alternatives; that living, old-fashioned Quakerism-calm, patient, full of both genuine zeal and staying power, not needing the incessant application of human stimulants-is not to be regarded as hopelessly extinct, nor its work among the Churches complete. As a Society we have still a calling and service, and these are not likely to be promoted by the mere imitation of other religious bodies, however zealous and successful they may be.

As part of the same tendency to which we have had so largely to refer, we must say a word on the growing disposition, as it seems to us, to indulge in

too much theology. There are many who think they see this in much of the ministry of the present day-in the public offerings in prayer, and even in the General Epistle. It was often apparent in the deliberations of the Yearly Meeting, especially in the hot debate on the word "fundamental." It turned one of its large meetings for worship into a time of painful controversy, in which extremes on one side begot extremes on the other, until the only comfort left for those who sought to be worshippers, was the knowledge that we were in the hands of One Who is Truth itself, Who is not exacting in dogma, and Who can and will really speak to the condition of the seeking soul.

The strength of our religious body, as it seems to us, is not in the inculcation of creeds, or elaborate theological systems, which are often the mere uninspired inferences of fallible men; but in the loving recognition and promotion of the work of Christ in the soul, by the power of His Spirit. The faith that seeks to bring people, not to this or that doctrine, but to Christ Himself, and is content "to leave them there," to grow in grace and knowledge under His Divine influence, is a catholic and sound faith though it is not one that is pleasing to the busy theological mind.

There is a further view closely connected with this subject, and which came up during the Yearly Meeting, to which we must briefly refer. It was repeatedly implied during the discussion on the Eleventh Query, and at other times, that the Society of Friends differs from many other religious bodies, upon secondary questions only. The Query itself seems to assume as much, where it speaks of "promoting the religious instruction of our younger members in fundamental Christian truth, and in the Scriptural grounds of our religious principles." The proposition from Durham

To some of us

runs somewhat in the same direction. this estimate of the Society's standing comes as the beginning of a "new departure," and one full of many anxious forebodings. How it is possible for any one to read the Journal of Fox or the Memoir of Grelletthe man of the seventeenth, or the man of the nineteenth century—and come to the conclusion that these servants of Christ differed from many other good men on secondary matters only, is a wonder indeed!

In one sense it is undoubtedly true that all sincere worshippers of God are of the same faith, or, as William Penn expresses it, "The humble, meek, merciful, just, pious, and devout souls are everywhere of one religion." But a comprehensive view like this, which would include the Mahometan, the Unitarian, and the Catholic in the same fraternity, if all fearing God, and working righteousness, is not the meaning of those who would base the Society on secondary Truth. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the tendency of their view is to narrowness rather than breadth, and that it leads almost to a negation of the great neglected truth which Fox and Barclay revived.

The leaders of the Evangelical sects-Baxter and Bunyan and the rest-never admitted that the fathers of Quakerism were in harmony with themselves as regards primary Christian doctrine. The Friends themselves were equally uncompromising. They differed essentially both in the inception and the presentation of Truth. They differed almost radically in their view of fundamental truth. It may be easy to cite disjointed sentences from one or the other Quaker writer to prove the contrary, but the fact is patent in their teaching, and cannot be controverted. The Evangelical sects declared, and still declare, their foundationtruth to be the Death of Christ. The Friends, going wider and deeper, avow that their foundation-truth is Christ Himself, the Living Saviour,-the same yes

terday, to-day, and for ever! And, as regards the Friends, this was no shadowy difference of terms and words, but a distinction, vital, and influential, in their whole teaching.

Their religion was thus pre-eminently simple in its character. It began at the beginning. It was not clogged and mystified with theological verbiage. It appealed to a power that could be known and felt, and as such it had a wonderful success. They who practised it ignored no revealed truth; the human life of Christ,-His death, His resurrection, His ascension, all for our sakes,—they thankfully accepted and believed. But Christ the Living, the Indivisible, He who had been God manifest in the flesh, and is now God manifest in the Spirit, was their foundation Rock. His enlightening grace, His deliverance from sin, His qualifying guiding power, His sustaining influence and abiding peace, they richly realised and earnestly proclaimed.

If we, their descendants, are willing in this time of gracious visitation, to come under the same preparing hand, and to be governed and endowed by the same Spirit, there is good hope that we shall yet be permitted to share abundantly in their labours and their success. We have a place and a work allotted to us among the tribes of the spiritual Israel, as have other branches of the Church of Christ. As such, we may safely leave the propagation of Methodism to the Methodists themselves,—and in all faithfulness mind our own calling.

VOICE FROM SOUTHAMPTON.-No. XI.

WITH the perpetual comings and goings of this busy world, and the ease with which my Southampton voice was transferred to Darlington on the last occasion, it is perhaps hardly needful to apologise for again abandoning the "local habitation" whilst maintaining the name.

To make something of connection, however, with the "lively Packet Port," I will start with the Editor of the "Buff-coloured Quarterly," as he leaves the round study-chair and oblong table which are devoted to Examiner behests. Even Editors, who are proverbially "heard but not seen," cannot travel without luggage, and on the present occasion his bag was incumbered, not to say disfigured, by three stout volumes, leathern-bound, with clasps of golden metal,* which seemed to be a peculiar object of his care. It was evident that the books in question were neither volumes of the Friends' Examiner, nor rejected addresses of the same, and yet, as this London journey was specially connected with the réunion of writers of this unique Quarterly Journal, it was clear that some occult connection existed between these books and the conversazione. Glancing at the frontispiece of one I see inscribed thereon, in a circular scroll, the words, "Editor and his Volunteers, Battalion 1st," succeeded by fifty pages bearing the likenesses and autographs of those who have enriched the pages of this periodical by their contributions. Volume II. resembles Vol I., except that Battalion "2nd" was inscribed, and on

*This is a poetical license. The clasps in question are much more closely allied to brass or aluminium.-EDITOR.