those youthful gardeners who dig up their seeds two or three times a day to see if they have sprouted. And it is just this sort of redeemability which heretofore has been always being attempted and has always failed, and which a system of redemptions most inevitably leads to. Let, then, every bank be required to redeem its bills at its own counter, or, better still, let this requirement be so guarded as not to be abused, and at the same time it will be much more certain of furnishing all legitimately required specie at all times.

The true use and necessity of specie in a currency of a mixed character, and the effects of the return to specie pay. ments upon our new system, though so closely connected with the subject, cannot be entered upon here, but still are to be considered in any full estimate of its value. The object of this article is rather to bring the comparison up to the present time. History rather than speculation.

It may be asked if we suppose the national banking system has rendered crises and panics impossible. We certainly do

Banks and the currency are but a part of the machinery by means of which the operations of commerce and finance are carried on, and through which, so to speak, the results of these operations become visible. But no system of finance has yet been discovered, nor is it likely that there can be any, which will prevent fluctuations in the value of money and occasional serious disturbances in commercial aflairs. It is mostly through the banks, at such times, that these troubles become visible, or are immediately felt; and the unphilosophic mind, mistaking this connection for cause and effect, naturally enough suspects the banks of being at the bottom of all the trouble. Hence the violent abuse of these institutions always indulged in on such occasions; hence, also, the frequent attempts to mitigate these evils by remedies applied to what are themselves but involuntary instruments worked by a superior force.

Again, the regulation of the currency under our National system, if unfortunately, still unavoidably, falls under the control of Congress. We cannot be very sanguine as to the unerring wisdom of this body in conducting our financial affairs. A large popular body is, in many respects, peculiarly unfitted for the discharge of so delicate a trust. Its members

are not selected or elected on any principle or in accordance with any practice which tends to beget confidence in that regard, and we never see them approach this class of subjects without serious apprehension of the results. These remarks are not intended in any unfriendly spirit, but would be accepted by the members of that body whose opinions are best worth having. They are made simply because they are true, and because they indicate one of the serious dangers to our financial success. Nevertheless, our present system is so far superior to anything we have ever had before that we can afford to run some risk; and the more clearly we understand what are its dangers, and what its advantages, the more likely we shall be to avoid the one and secure the other.

ARTICLE III.-CYPRIAN AND HIS TIMES:

A LECTURE BY THE REV. DR. MERLE D'AUBIGNÉ.

TRANSLATED FOR THE NEW ENGLANDER.

IN the history of the Church, the third century is remarkable for the invasion of Catholicism in the form of Episcopacy. That invasion had already commenced in the second century, but the evil increased in the third; and Cyprian was one of the most powerful instruments in its development.

There are

Catholicism should be distinguished from Papism or Popery: they are two very different ecclesiastical forms. three clearly marked, successive transformations of the Church. Evangelism was the distinguishing peculiarity of the first century; then Catholicism or Episcopacy was born in the second, was formed in the third, and established, with all its essential characteristics, in the fourth century. Popery at length appeared in the seventh century, as the gradual outgrowth from Catholicism or Episcopacy; in the eighth century it began to be invested with temporal power, and from that time its ruling influence continued to increase to the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, which are the periods of its greatest power. It may be said that what the gospel is to Catholicism, Catholicism is to Popery, or that there is as great a distance between Popery and Catholicism as between Catholicism and Evangelism, or the gospel.

What then is the peculiarity or character of Catholicism? In the times of the Apostles or the gospel, we find the Church spiritual and living. The Lord had said, The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. Little by little the spirit was withdrawn, and there remained in the Church only the form. So it is that when the spirit departs from the man, there remains only the body; or when the vivifying water escapes from some fissures, there is left only the vase. Something not unlike this occurred in the Church; but the vase, that is to say, the Church, did not lose immediately all its vital force, i. e., the Holy Spirit. In the first century the

presence of Christ was the great power of the Christian society; it was the same also in the second, and even in the third; but that power was continually decreasing. Jesus Christ departing from the Church, what remained in it? There remained consecrated persons, consecrated places, and consecrated times and seasons; i. e., priests, temples, festivals, rites, and ceremonies. But what are all these without Jesus Christ? What life-giving power can come from all these institutions. Alas! they are as

the bed of a river, where appear the banks, the dikes, the bridges, all except the ever flowing waters which cause the trees planted near them to give fruits in their season, and which cover them with glittering verdure.

The invasion of Catholicism or Episcopacy had perhaps natural, if not legitimate, causes. The appearance of heresies, of schisms, and the decline of spiritual life, seemed to necessitate the introduction of certain forms, of certain institutions and laws. But very soon the form began to oppress the spirit. Then the love of evangelical liberty was revived, and opposition was at once manifested. Courageous Christians set forth the Holy Scriptures against new customs, opposed the spirit to the form, liberty to domination, and proved that Catholicism was neither evangelic nor apostolic, but simply a new product of a degenerate age. Formalism, which did not expect this vigorous attack, was for a moment confounded; then, to save itself, carried its claims to an unreasonable extreme. It was set forth, not only as a proper means of extending the truth and maintaining order, but as the end, the essence, the nature itself of the Church. Catholicism, in order to defend itself, taught that Episcopacy was of divine right, and affirmed that it came from the same source as the Holy Scriptures; and to prove this assumption, produced the apocryphral books of the Apostles, which were written evidently not in the first, but the third century. With a loud voice Catholicism claimed to be Christianity itself, the work of God, and that outside of its enclosure neither the truth nor the Holy Spirit could be found.

Two historical incidents contributed specially to establish the sacerdotal and episcopal power, which was the leading trait of Catholicism. The first of these incidents was the prevalence in the Church of the ideas of theocratic Judaism, in which the

priests and the high priest had played so important a role. The second was the influence of the virtues of many bishops, whose zeal and devotion led them to die martyrs to their faith, as did Cyprian himself. The Church, as compensation for these virtues, became enslaved almost to those who gave such examples of self-sacrifice.

The question may be asked, in what consists the difference between the priest and the minister? The priest belongs to legal and theocratic religions which have preceded Christianity; the minister or pastor to the religion of grace, to the Church of the gospel, which is as much above Judaism as the man is above the child. Unfortunately, the Roman Church, in its religion, though coming after the gospel, has gone back into a state of infancy. The legal or theocratic Church can not exist without persons, who by birth or by succession, or by sacramental arrangement, possess a sacerdotal character which qualifies them to lead the people in the way of salvation, and establish them in communion with the Lord. Disconnected from this specific priestly character, no one, according to the legal religion, can have part in the work of redemption, or even enter into communion with God. This idea of Catholicism is not only foreign to the gospel, but is directly opposed to its teachings. According to the gospel, communion with God does not in any manner depend on the interposition of consecrated persons, but it is secured simply and only by faith in the word of God. The idea of a priest, which is for the Roman and Anglican Churches the principal idea of the religious system, finds no place whatever in the Evangelical system. There is one mediator, says the Scripture, the man Christ Jesus. It is true, the minister of the New Testament is called to preach the word of grace, to pray with all the people, to administer the sacraments; but these acts, so far from implying a priesthood or a clergy, are made the work of the minister only as being better qualified to do them, and in case of necessity they can be accomplished by simple believers. A man alone with the Holy Scriptures, separated from priest, from minister, from all other men, can by the grace of the Holy Spirit find the Lord Jesus Christ in the word of God, and with him eternal life. The Catholic priest keeps man, even to the end, in a state of dependence and in a long minority. The