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able in beaded necklaces, and sacred hearts, and crosses white or black, golden or gemmed, that grace the bosoms of the fair. It is manifest in the monks' sonorous chant, in the hymn all redolent of cloister and convent, in sanctus, anthem, Te Deum, that everywhere are so fondly sung, and that resound in our Nonconformist meeting-houses, making the very bones of our stern Puritanic forefathers to shake in their tombs. It would be proof of bad taste, of the vulgarity which marks Dissent, to speak with disapprobation of these things as Popish vanities of sight and sound, as meretricious adornings and musical enchantments best befitting the scarlet Lady of the Seven Hills. It would certainly show an unpardonable bluntness of the aesthetic faculty not to behold and admire the beautiful wherever it is to be found, and it would indicate intense stupidity and a purblind dulness of mental discernment most discreditable "in educated circles" not to be able to distinguish between the outward accidents and accompaniments of a false system and its essential spirit. Nevertheless, it will not, I think, be denied that this invasion of fashionable mediæ valism, this love of the antique which has grown up with artistic culture and the weariness of a bald and inelegant utility, is a most useful ally of the priest and the confessional.

There must be, however, something other than the favouring circumstances of the time to account for the success of this great religious movement. It has won but few converts from the outside world, and made still fewer perverts from Nonconformist churches. It has spread chiefly within the pale of the national Establishment, taking possession almost bodily of this ancient church, and making itself the predominant and most powerful element in its religious life. How is this? What is

the secret of this extraordinary success? First and foremost must we place in our enumeration of ascertainable causes, the firm, unwavering faith of its leaders. In the midst of doubting, hesitating, half-sceptical enunciations of truth, they come forward with bold avowal of adherence to ancient dogmas. They believe, and therefore speak. Whoever hesitates, they do Whoever speaks of Christian

not.

doctrine "with 'bated breath and whispering humbleness," they do not. Whoever pares down his creed to suit the temper of advanced criticism, they do not. Their faith is sicklied o'er with no pale cast of doubt. Against the modern sceptical scientific world, they put the authority of the venerable, the ancient, the apostolic church, the church which has numbered in its fellowship the finest spirits of antiquity and a host of martyred saints, and has controlled the course of the centuries. What care they for the carping Sadducean quibbles of science falsely so called, or the brilliant and polished shafts of rationalistic criticism. The Church has withstood such attacks any day for two thousand years, and her shield is invulnerable still. Faith begets faith. Confidence wins confidence. The accent of conviction in the teacher gives the persuasion of certainty to the hearer. The bold, fearless statement, however erroneous, is often accepted, when truth itself, delivered in apologetic tone, minced and mangled by a merciless criticism, is powerless to convince. Evangelical doctrines emptied of strong faith, the half-despairing search after truth of broader and more cultured minds, can gain no power over the people comparable to that which is gained by an unflinching, uncompromising sturdiness of assurance. If evangelical systems are changing their front somewhat in presence of the foe, mediæval sacerdotalism changes not, and marches in firm compact phalanx to easy, if short-lived, triumph. Nor must it be overlooked that battle is given by these brave combatants from ranks well-disciplined and equipped. The best modern defences of our faith are from this school of theologians. Dr. Pusey's "Daniel" is a masterpiece of scholarship and argument in maintenance of the inspiration of God's written word. If too polemical in its structure and too bitter and confident in its spirit, it is unquestionably one of the ablest vindications of the orthodox view of prophecy and revelation that modern times have produced. Mr. Liddon's "Lectures on the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" is perhaps the most learned, the most eloquent, the most complete and exhaustive reply that has yet been given to the mythical and romantic theories

Modern Mediavalism.

of our Lord's life, and it forms an admirable and compendious manual of the evidences of our Christian faith. Moreover, in this new crusade, oratory and song united in the beginning to create a martial enthusiasm, and in due time the scenic art of ritualism has supplied the pomp and circumstance of war. In its early days the pulpit sounded out with no uncertain voice the watchwords of the new revival, and poetry breathed its inspiration into young and ardent natures. Under the spell of ancient years, from Oxford's time hoary and venerable halls, with the solemn, impressive appeals of Newman's deep, earnest preaching filling the soul, and with the soothing strains of Keble's meditative muse murmuring in the ear, our AngloCatholic host went forth upon its mission in this modern world.

But neither the faith nor the culture of these champions of priestly dogmas surpasses their piety and zeal. Devotion of the Thomas à Kempis type, with its rapt meditation upon the passion of Christ, it has been their aim to revive. Intense personal realization of the agony and sufferings of the Saviour; vivid sympathetic fellowship with Him in His love for a fallen world; deep yearning desire after complete mortifying of the flesh and the perfecting of holiness in the fear of the Lord; the contempt of luxury, wealth, and worldly gains; the overpowering conviction of the awful realities of eternity,—these are the great features of religious experience of which their sermons and devotional books are full. The masterspirit of the first years of this movement, Dr. Newman, prays for a "holy sternness" to temper "the languid unmeaning benevolence misnamed Christian love." He looks to God to send "a severe discipline, the order of St. Paul and St. John," a witness for Christ fresh from His presence, knowing the terror of the Lord, not shrinking to proclaim the divine wrath against sin and unbelief, declaring the narrowness of the way of life, the difficulty of attaining heaven, the necessity of taking up our cross, the excellence and beauty of self-denial and austerity. He goes further, and herein reveals the real quality of the school of piety he sought to introduce,--he expresses the firm conviction that the country would gain "were it vastly more super

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stitious, more bigoted, more gloomy, more fierce in its religion than at present it shows itself to be." Not that these tempers of mind are desirable, but that they are "infinitely more desirable than a heathen obduracy, a cold, self-sufficient and self-wise tranquil. lity." On the other hand he gives, now and then, a glimpse of brighter and more cheerful moods, and while counselling "obedience to the church" as a religious duty, he recognises, like a true Protestant, that "the religious history of each individual is as solitary and complete as the history of the world." So speaks Dr. Newman in discourses which left their impress deep and strong upon the Anglo-Catholic revival in its earlier years. Of late,

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with the fervour and zeal of a Methodist, Dr. Pusey maintains, "The contest for souls is the one history of earth. Everything is of moment as it bears upon it." "We have something more to do in this world than to pass through it and be just saved ourselves some how by the mercy of Jesus." A deluge of evil," he exclaims, with passionate fervour, seems to overspread the world. Who, in this vast wilderness of souls, seems ever to think of Jesus, or to win others to think of Jesus? Poor Jesus! He seems to wander through the world as when He was in the flesh, and not to find where to lay His head! Where are the hearts that respond to His love? . . Everywhere we see bars and bolts to keep out Jesus, but where is there a home for Him? Where are the breasts on which He may rest? Where are they who mourn for sin and for the loss of souls, and for the dishonour done to Jesus and His love? Where are they who zealously seek for His lost sheep in the wilderness? ... 'The piece of silver' may be trampled upon in the mire of Babylon. It had the image and superscription of God. It may be cleansed anew by the blood of Jesus to shine for ever. around the eternal throne."

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Moreover, other tokens of earnestness and zeal may be observed beside the utterances of a fervent piety. It has been reserved for this party in the busy activity of our day to restore daily service in the churches. It is their distinguishing characteristic to be careful more of the religious life of the church than of its connection with

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the State. It is to them we are led to look, not to the evangelical party, as the allies of Nonconformists in liberating religion from State patronage and control. It is in their proceedings we note the inconsistency sure to mark a zealous spirit, and the innovations which vigorous life will certainly make necessary. It is among them, more perhaps than among committees of Evangelical Churchmen, that we find how the restraints of rubric and ritual may be overleaped in the eager desire to save souls. It is they, too, who warn the faithful against making too much of external ordinances, and admonish them "not to forget the intense reality of existence, the inward growth of God's reign in the heart,' oneness with God" as "the end of all His revelation and of His sacraments," ""the salvation of souls" as that "for which He became man and put His Holy Spirit within us in some outward accidents of worship." It is among them that unceasing prayer is offered for God's converting grace to be poured out upon the world, that one unbroken chain of continuous intercession for the souls of men is kept up, night and day, by relay after relay of the "Companions of the Love of Jesus," of whom Dr. Pusey is a brother, and to whom in their "Retreat" for the renewal of fervour he addressed eleven remarkable discourses. And it is by them that recently for a number of days together, in more than a hundred churches of the metropolis, as a vigorous and united attack upon the worldliness and sin of the great city, special services have been held of a most extraordinary character, attended, it is computed, by at least thirty-five thousand souls.

Our survey, brief and imperfect though it is, must close; but our conclusion cannot, we think, be mistaken. The first leaders of this movement, whose success is assuredly no unmixed evil, had been nurtured in evangelical truth, and took with them a remembrance and tincture of their early religious experience. But the current soon set Rome ward, and vainly did Keble's gentle spirit seek to divert it from its course. Newman went, and Manning, and the two Wilberforces, and one by one others followed. The only goal and resting-place of the Anglo-Catholic, the only logical con

clusion of all his reasonings, is Rome. He is even now a Roman Catholic, only with the insular antipathy and traditional independence of the Englishman. Father Hyacinthe might easily take orders with him without adding a single element of Protestantism to his creed; and Father Hyacinthe, an avowedly conscientious though refractory Catholic, would be the more liberal man. But let us judge our Anglican fairly, and weigh well his devotedness and faith. No sympathy whatever can we feel with Romish superstition and sacerdotal pride, yet we cannot but profoundly admire religious carnestness and zeal. It is not, most assuredly, from the falsehood men hold, but from the truth connected with it that life and power are drawn. Beneath the superincumbent mass of tradition and error there may be buried somewhere the foundations of essential truth. It is to Christ the world is invited even when the Church, the priest, the sacrament, are interposed between the sinner and his Saviour, between the soul and its Lord. Who can tell, then, how many may find Him by this circuitous route, however difficult and perilous that route may be? At least let

charity hope for the best, and let wisdom learn, as learn it may even from an enemy, a lesson of duty and devotion. The faith of these men is corrupt, but it is faith, not doubt. Their piety is morbid and stern at its best, but it is earnest and apparently sincere. In their religious experience there seems no light bounding joyousness of heart that comes from a clear unclouded view of the fulness of God's love and the infinite sufficiency of a Saviour's death, but there is power in their religion, a power which seems to spring from fellowship with the Unseen, and communion with the "Man of Sorrows." The recent outbreaks of excessive zeal are not perhaps the spasmodic movements of a galvanized life, they may be rather as the spray and foam that break from a wave of mighty influence and force. But there is no occasion for alarm as though we were all to be swept back into the pale of Old Rome. The word has gone forth, the doom is written on her history with the finger of God,-Babylon shall fall. Yet there is reason for us to see to it that our purer and diviner principles are not the mere watchwords of party, but the

Revelations of Life in London.

sources of spiritual inspiration and power, that we do not hold them simply as geometrical propositions because they are true, but rather use them as means of grace and helps to divine service, and that our religion is not a something outside us and about us and around us, but in us, in woven into the whole fabric of our being, the intensest reality of our inward consciousness and life. There is reason for us to ask, do we outstrip in earnestness, in courage, in devotion, the men whose errors we deplore, and whose follies we abhor? Does our zeal call down the world's scorn? Do our prayers go up unceasingly and un

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brokenly for the conversion of souls? Is our communion with Christ closer and more frequent because it is not through the medium of "the Church" and the "priest," but direct, personal, and spiritual? There is reason, and great reason, for us to seek that in this new year of our Lord, in this new century of our churches, we may prove, by God's good hand upon us, in our abounding toil and unwearied devotion, that a pure faith and a simple ritual are mightier for God, and win more signal successes than the corrupt superstitions of priestcraft, and all the pomp and splendour of Rome.

REVELATIONS OF LIFE IN LONDON.
BY THE REV. GEORGE W. MCCREE.
No. 1.-The Greatness and Growth of the City.

LONDON is a vast and awful problem.
"What city is like unto this great
city ?" From the days of the Romans
to those of the illustrious Victoria it
has been developing in extent, popula-
tion, influence, wealth, splendour, and
mystery, until it towers high over all
other British cities, and combines in
itself the characteristics of Nineveh,
Tyre, Rome, Athens, Corinth, and Jeru-
salem. Few men know London. Thou-
sands of its natives do not know it. It
is a province covered with houses. It
is a kingdom comprising wondrous
parts. It is a moral difficulty of awful
profoundness and ever-increasing in-
terest. Hence, mere visitors to London
know little about its recesses, its tribes,
its deserts, its crowded haunts, its hos-
pitals and prisons, the strange pursuits
of its varied thousands, the bright vir-
tues which adorn, and the hateful vices
which defile it. To know London we
must live in it, love it, pray for it, and
explore it fearlessly by day and night
for years together, and even then many
of its secrets will remain unveiled.

Look at the extent of London as defined by the Board of Works, it covers an area of one hundred and twenty square miles; and no city in ancient or modern times ever contained so much life as that unparalleled area. It is the eighth wonder of the world. It throbs with excitement; it never stagnates; it is never still. The population existing within this area is about 3,463,777

souls. The City of London-only a square mile in area-is inhabited by 112,063 persons; but the enormous number of 420,000 people have been known to enter and leave it in one day, and that day an ordinary one. There

is a story told of a man who stood up in a doorway waiting until the crowd passed by, but he soon found it was no use waiting. In some parts of the City the crowds of foot passengers are astounding. Let any one stand in the gateway leading to Dr. Parker's chapel, in the Poultry, and a hundred persons will pass him every minute for hours together! And all of them are immortal, and need a Saviour to guide them to the city of God. I wonder how many of them are saved with an everlasting salvation.

"Run over and killed," is a common mode of announcing the death of a large number of Londoners, and, also, of visitors, because they do not always know how to avoid the dangers of the streets. And, from the incessant traffic, these dangers are very great. It is possible that a man much abroad in London is often in greater bodily fear than Dr. Livingstone in the deserts of Africa. Let any one count the vehicles passing along a great metropolitan highway, and he will soon see how perilous it is to cross it in the busy hours of the day. Nine thousand vehicles have been counted at Holborn Hill, twelve thousand in Fleet Street,

and nineteen thousand on London Bridge, in one day! We need not, therefore, wonder that many are run over and killed in the streets.

Any one visiting London will be painfully impressed by the number of places where intoxicants are sold. Of these there are now, I believe, more than ten thousand-all of them sources of poverty, misery, and irreligion. Were they built side by side they would extend a distance of thirty miles and more. Happily, counteracting agencies are at work in Temperance Societies and Bands of Hope. In connection with the United Kingdom Band of Hope Union about fifty thousand children have signed the pledge, and this, surely, is a presage of good in days to come.

As London contains four hundred thousand houses, and as four thousand houses have just been finished, there are an immense number of persons who find employment in connection with them. There are 18,000 plasterers, 71,000 bricklayers, and 85,000 masons. There is one baker for every 1,206 people, one butcher for every 1,533, one grocer for every 1,800, and, alas! one seller of strong drink to every 668-showing that more money is spent on beer than on bread.

The destitution existing in London is, in one view of it, a great mystery. There is really no end to the charity of Londoners, and yet poverty and pauperism increase every year. The total amount of money, food, clothing, coal, medicine, &c., bestowed upon the poorer classes surpasses all the calculations of persons not accustomed to such matters. Here are figures to astonish quiet folk who live in the country. The amount of public charity is £4,225,640; of local charity, £559,000; of house and personal charity, £2,520,000; and of legal charity, £1,200,000-a sum of eight millions annually expended in charity and helping the poor, and yet, as I have said, poverty and pauperism are ever on the increase. Things would probably change if all the public houses were closed seven days a week.

Such a vast population as that of London requires, of course, an army of police to protect it and to keep it in order. About eight thousand constables seems a large number; but when we find that in one year 63,000 persons made themselves liable to

apprehension, it will be seen that there is not a constable too many. Beer, wine, and gin, play their part in this drama of crime. As many as 16,000 persons are yearly "brought up" for intemperance, and riotous conduct induced by it. Besides these drunken people there are fourteen thousand thieves, tramps, pick-pockets, receivers of stolen goods, &c., who need looking after, and they need a good many policemen to prevent their robbing us in the streets, and murdering us in our beds.

London can be seen very far off at night. Standing on Hampstead Heath, or any elevated spot, in the dark still night, it seems all ablaze. I have seen it when it looked on fire. This arises from the immense array of window, shop, and street lights. Quite four hundred thousand lights illuminate the metropolis, and they consume fourteen million cubic feet of gas between evening and morning! And yet there are dark places which are full of the habitations of cruelty, and lonely spots where murder might be done as easily as on Salisbury Plain. I have found people sleeping where others would not expect to find a homeless dog in his lair, and know places where wretched ones have died as desolate as shipwrecked mariners on uninhabited islands. Light often makes the darkness more dense, and not far from beautiful houses and flaming streets are hideous spots where no lamp shines, nor hope springs eternal in the human breast.

Great London must be fed. It is never dyspeptic. It always wants more. All climes contribute to its larder, and every island of the sea sends it some dainty morsel. Three railways brought into it, in one year, 36,000 tons of meat! Ostend sent 600,000 rabbits. The Great Western poured in a million gallons of milk. Norway forwards shiploads of fish. Normandy often sends three millions of eggs in a week. And yet, alas ! thousands are never fed, but pine and die in silent despair. When every warehouse, shop, and market is full, and millions of gold are buried in the vaults of the Bank of England, there are unfortunate wretches falling dead in the streets from sheer starvation.

But man does not, and cannot, live by bread alone. He needs life from

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