and show "himself that he is God," whose destruction is to be in the event of the coming of our Lord.

There is much to invest this opinion with plausibility. The "lawless one," does most certainly seem to meet his identification in the spirit of insubordination with which the Church and the world are filled, and besides, this lawless spirit is the perversion of the principle of patience, which according to the Apostle Peter is the last period in the advance of the restoration of man to the image of God-godliness as he expresses it; during which last period, we may not greatly err in supposing the advent of that Lord will take place, the brightness of whose coming will be the destruction of Antichrist.

From this review of the whole subject we arrive at this conclusion That Protestantism and Romanism, as the embodiment respectively of the two great elements of that liberty wherewith Christ came to set us free, are not inherently inimical to each other that each embodies, in the midst of all its errors, its most precious truth, which is the complement of the other-that to destroy one, were it possible, would be to inflict a most grievous injury upon the other-that each one is absolutely necessary to the perfection of the other. While all this is true, yet are they violently held asunder by the sinfulness of humanity, which sin has rushed each to the opposite extreme from the other. The duty, consequently growing out of this relation is, that each one be concerned primarly with its own defects and sins, not however despising the friendly oflices of the other; (and especially is this applicable to Protestantism just at this time, when it is manifest that we have more to fear from perversion on this side, than we have from the errors and corruptions on the other,)that in no event should one attempt the wholesale destruction of the other; but in all controversy, carefully to discriminate between truth and error, and seek to deliver the first, wherever found, from the just condemnation of the last. So then at length, when each shall have accomplished its separate mission, they may happily be brought to a joyful marriage, and present to Christ at his coming the world redeemed, and the Church in outward body one, as ever it has been in inward life, in the form of godliness. And out of this shall grow in due course of development, brotherly-kindness, and that last and greatest of christian graces, charity.

Jefferson, Md.

S. N. C.

PHILOSOPHY OF PERSECUTION.'

THE history of Persecution is prolific of phenomena which are not more lamentable, then they are startling to the inquiring mind. The mere fact that man is so prone to intolerance of the opinions of his fellow-man, especially in the sphere of religion, and that he can exult with furious delight over a victory won by means of the rack, the faggot ond the axe, is a fact at once curious and startling. This fact and the attending phenomena have been viewed differently by different minds, according to their respective points of observation. The philosophical indifferentists of the English and French schools, and a large class of religious sentimentalists such as St. Pierre and Fenelon, have, respectively, ridiculed or wept over man's unaccountable madness; while others, with more virulence, reckon these phenomena as the legitimate fruit of the religious principle, as though the religious principle were the artificial product of priestcraft, and not an essential element of human nature.

In endeavoring to account for the persecuting spirit, we may say in one word that it springs from the depravity of human nature. The schism between God and man was necessarily and speedily followed by a schism in humanity itself, by which its forces were arrayed in malignant antagonism. The commandment second in importance, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," follows not only in the order of time, but in the order of sequence, upon the first and greatest, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God." And not less legitimately does hatred towards man follow from hatred towards God. The persecuting spirit is utterly irreconcilable with the primitive condition of man, as tradition and nature hint at, and scripture reveals it, and can be accounted for properly, only in connection with a lapsus of the race. But as the fall introduced no new elements into our nature, but only disturbed and distorted those already existing, we will endeavor to trace the phenomena of persecution a little more closely.

We may say with safety, that every great historical phenomenon springs from some deep, abiding principle of our nature: and when it assumes a malignant or destructive form, it is only

The historic material used in the preparation of the present article was derived from the following sources:-Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History; Neander's History of the Christiau Religion and Church; Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; and Milman's History of Christianity.

the abuse, the abnormal development, of some legitimate, or properly human principle or tendency. There is no such thing as a general movement in society, no matter how wild and irregular, that is untraceable to some principle of our nature, any more than there is a wild, swollen, inundating river, that cannot be traced to some fountain head. True, there may be many collateral influences. The original principle may be almost lost sight of amid the multitude of adjuncts which conduce to the final result, just as the river may have many collateral branches which furnish the great body of water which gathers towards its mouth.

It may aid us in this inquiry if we premise, that persecution has not been confined to the religious world. It has raged in the spheres of politics, philosophy, science; everywhere indeed that a difference of opinion was possible. To be heterodox in politics, in the days of the French Republic, was as dangerous as to be heterodox in religion, in the tinies of St. Bartholomew's eve. To be heterodox in philosophy, in the days of the Realists and Nominalists, was as uncomfortable, almost as dangerous, as to deny the dogma of transubstantiation in the days of Hinemar of Rheims. Heterodoxy in science, as the world judged, brought Galileo upon his knees before the tribunal of the Inquisition; and the discovery of fluxions was the occasion of no lile persecuting rancor. If, then, we would discover a principle which lies at the bottom of all persecution, it must be a human principle. It must be expansive enough to cover the entire field of our nature, and capable of almost endless combination with the various lateral forces, which may determine the precise character of the phenomena. It must be universal in its applicability to every sphere of thought, and capable of adjusting itself to the national and ecclesiastical, as well as to the individual life. Whilst these conditions may be justly required of it, it is not required that the ultimate principle should account for all the phenomena. Large allowance must be made for adjunct and circumstantial influences, which may almost hide from view the primary, moving agency. The plastic power in nature is scarcely thought of, ainid the circumstantial influences of rain and sunshine and changes of season. And yet this power moves the panorama of nature. It is not required of any pervading principle, that it shall be the alone sufficient cause of every varied manifestation. All that is demanded is the power of combination and adjustment, which circumstances may require. Historians find it necessary to discover different causes, for every separate outbreak of persecution since the world be

gan. These are often purely accidental, and bear no relation or similarity perhaps in any two cases. These however are but the occasions, which call the deeper principles of our nature into play. There may be room even for the admission of Satanic agency. Such agency uses the powers of our nature as its instruments. The powers of darkness are able to accomplish nothing in the world, except as they wield to their own purposes the materials already existing. Even though we admit that every persecution through which the church has been called to pass, or which she has been tempted to perpetrate, was an effort on the part of the "prince of the power of the air" to prevail against her, yet must we admit that the artillery for the diabolical onset has been gathered from the arsenal of human nature. The unclean spirits, which "are the spirits of devils," "go forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty."

Let us assume, then, that the fontal source of the persecuting spirit is the strong sense of individuality, which underlies every man's feelings and actions, and see whether it will meet the conditions required. This, we conceive, is reducing the moving cause of the phenomena to its ultimate elements, its last degree of simplicity, and it may be difficult to retain so slender a thread amid the sanguinary and world-convulsing scenes through which we may be called to pass.

Every man, to a greater or less degree, considers himself the centre around which every thing in the shape of opinion ought. to revolve. Every man has almost as much confidence in his own perceptions and logical deductions as in his senses, and he very naturally makes these the standard by which he measures the perceptions and deductions of others; and of course he cannot look with indifference upon any who pronounce them false. He feels that the foundations of his knowledge are being impaired. It is not easy to remain unmoved, when told that these mental progeny, these idols of the brain, are mere inane phantoms, if not the dark-visaged children of falsehood. A process of ratiocination which is perfectly clear to one man's mind, he is disposed to think, ought to be so to another's. This, it strikes. us is the ultimate solution of the mighty war of opinion, which has ever convulsed the world; and the collateral aid of the malignant passions,-which is easily afforded by the close connection of our emotional with our rational nature, is all that is needed, together with the necessary power, to give birth to the persecuting spirit in its most hideous and desolating forms. Take a homely illustration. A plain, thoughtful farmer meets

his neighbor at a partition fence, on a bright summer morning, and submits to him a proposition, perhaps in the sphere of vital truth, which he has reached through many hours of midnight thought and noonday musings, and which he has now elaborated and polished, until to his own vision it seems transparent as the light. The duller perception of the other cannot see it, or perhaps some previous bias leads him to spurn it. Then follows an effort to save the cherished idol, by exhibiting its claims and its beauties. Thought grapples with thought. Mind is pitted against mind. The passions come into play. And finally, if violence is not resorted to, the neighbors part with the mutual epithet of "fool." It requires a calm philosophy, the result of thoughtful culture, and wide views of man's more remote relations, to enable the ardent lover of truth to brook with perfect complacency a dogmatic difference of opinion. The same causes operate upon the masses of men. Organizations, whether social, political or religious, may be roused to violence in the same way as individuals. The world was more than five thousand years old, and European Civilization, with all the advantages of christianity, had toiled on for ages through blood and strife, before even the most enlightened portion of mankind learned the great principles of toleration. The discovery marked an epoch in the progress of humanity. It showed that a great stadium had been reached, in the ascent of the race to its final goal.

The outworkings of this principle may assume various phases; but all will be found more or less closely connected with the sense of individuality. The persecution of the few by the many, so common as to be almost proverbial, is not because the disposition to persecute is confined to the many, but because they possess the necessary power. The persecuting spirit is born in every man, who feels the shrine of his individuality invaded: and this the many feel, when the few possess or profess anything distinctive or exclusive.

Before proceeding to test the principle we have named by facts, let us inquire what is the final cause of the existence of such a principle in our nature? Why has God endowed us with a mental pugnacity so prolific of all that is evil and heartrending? We answer, precisely because there is such a thing as truth, and the capacity on the part of man to perceive it; and such a thing as error, or incapacity to perceive truth or wilful perversion of it. The human mind is capable of perceiving truth, or arriving at it by logical deduction; and the perception or logical result is sure and unerring, in proportion to the gifts and acquirements possessed and the freedom from disturbing in