science who bid us, as a duty we owe to truth, give up everything that the reason cannot explain. Both parties make upon us what I cannot but consider unreasonable demands. There are mysteries in science, as well as mysteries in faith and if philosophers are not disloyal to science by accepting a "working hypothesis," which they cannot fully prove, but which explains phenomena sufficiently well for practical purposes, neither are we disloyal to truth or false to our duty as reasonable beings, for accepting as our hypothesis the principle of faith-faith which can give a reason for itself in part, though not wholly, and on which we think we can dare "to work out our salvation, albeit in fear and trembling." We believe; we think we have some experience as a ground for our belief that God is working with us; and, to borrow the words of a great and profound thinker, He who has willed that we should so act," upon principles not absolutely indisputable, "co-operates with us in our acting, and thereby bestows on us a certitude which rises higher than the logical force of our conclusions." (Newman's Apologia, 324.)

But the perils from the side of ultra-dogmatism are perhaps even greater than the perils from the oppositions of science falsely so called." Indeed, I am misapplying the Apostle's phrase; and the ψευδώνυμος γνῶσις of which he bids Timothy beware is not honest, legitimate inquiry into the laws which govern the physical world, but the daring or inane speculations of a gnostic theology, puffed up by a temper carnal rather than spiritual, and intruding into things which it had not seen and could not pretend to

see.

Under the specious names of Catholic dogma or of infallible truth, weak minds are lured to accept propositions about divine things which, if not simply unmeaning, are utterly incredible, and which, when examined, are not found to rest on any authoritative or undoubted warrant of God's word, but upon the precarious or over-subtle inferences of fallible man. And when this is discovered, the inevitable law of reaction comes into operation; and those who have believed most get to believe least, and the credulity of the youth is replaced by the scepticism of the man. "The simplicity that is in Christ," or as it would be more correctly rendered, "the simplicity that is towards Christ”. ἐις τὸν Χριστὸν—was the mental quality that St. Paul feared might get corrupted in the Corinthian Christians. (2 Cor. xi. 3.) The eye singly fixed on Christ as the centre of all our hopes, the source of all our spiritual strength, is the condition of clearness of vision in spiritual things. If you are lifting anything else into the place which He alone should occupy, whether it be the Sacraments, or the Church, or the Priest, or even what you call the faith," which means your particular conception or formulation of truth, you are in effect drawing a curtain more or less thick, of more or fewer folds, between your soul and Him: and even the thinnest, and most translucent veil will dim somewhat of the glory of that countenance which is as the sun shining in his strength. No doubt we need some veil. Our eyes are not yet trained to gaze upon the fulness of that glory. But take heed how you multiply veils. To take for an example the question

that is so keenly agitated amongst us now, and which has recently been brought into such special prominence, and that is the only reason for my selecting it, there is ground for apprehension, lest amid these subtle controversies about the mode, and nature, and time, and conditions of the Divine Presence in the Holy Eucharist, the very object and purpose of that Presence should be overlooked or thrown into the background; lest while we are speculating about the virtue of the words and act of consecration; or are waiting for the elevation of the chalice or paten; or are preparing ourselves for some act of adoration of the Lord "present," as we phrase it, "objectively under the form of bread and wine," we so occupy ourselves with these uncertain and, at the best, secondary things, as to neglect to ascertain what tokens. there are of the Presence there, where alone it can possibly be of any benefit to ourselves—I mean in our own souls. There is growing up amongst us, I fear, a materialised conception of the presence of Christ in His Sacrament which is as far below the spirituality of the doctrine of transubstantiation, as received by intelligent Romanists, as that is below the spirituality of St. Paul's teaching that "the cup of blessing which we bless is the communion of the blood of Christ; the bread which we break is the communion of the body of Christ." There is, I repeat, a danger of the thing signified being utterly obscured and lost behind the veil of the signifying form; of the outward and visible sign hindering instead of furthering the reception of the inward spiritual grace. And the danger is not only the danger that always springs from a superstition taking

the place of a spiritual or reasonable service; but the yet greater danger of the "form of godliness" making men indifferent to, or careless of, "the power." A ceremonial service has always had the effect of deadening the conscience to the claims and obligations of the moral law. King Saul needed to be told that “to obey was better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." In Isaiah's days men were offering their vain oblations, filling the air with the fumes of their incense, which was an "abomination;" keeping their new moons and sabbaths, which in the eyes of God was as it were "iniquity," "while their hands were full of blood." And another prophet had to teach those who were offering "their firstborn for their transgression - the fruit of the body for the sin of their soul"-what were the first principles of commercial honesty, of consider-. ateness, and of fair dealing, and to remind them that the primary duties which the Lord required of them were "to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with their God." With all the outward show of religion which surrounds us, I should like to be assured that this interest in ceremonial is commensurate with, and expressive of, a vital sense of religion's sanctifying, purifying power. If any of you that hear me are merely, or mainly gratifying an æsthetic sentiment in these matters, I may venture to tell you that indulging in a very perilous amusement.

you are

And with regard to points of faith or doctrine, it was a memorable saying of Channing's that " men are responsible for the uprightness of their opinions rather than for their rightness." The desire to be truthful at all hazards

is a nobler temper than the mere desire to be what men call "sound." The spirit of truthfulness is what Christ tells us the Father seeks in those who worship Him. There may be things hard to understand in the Pauline Epistles, and in the other Scriptures; but no one shall miss their meaning utterly, still less wrest or twist them to his own destruction, who seeks simply to know God's will for the purpose of doing it. No doubt ignorance and instability of character are serious hindrances in the search after truth: but there can hardly be instability where there is earnestness; and the ignorance that hinders is the ignorance of prejudice and self-sufficiency and shallow knowledge, rather than the ignorance which springs from the lack of cultivation or of educational opportunities. St. Paul had a strong conviction that differences of opinion among earnest men would ultimately be harmonised by the teaching of the Spirit of God, and certainly ought not to break up Christian unity. "Let us, therefore," he writes to the Philippians, "as many as be perfect, be thus minded; and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you" (Philip. iii. 15). He has more confidence in the power of truth to prevail by its own weight, than those who would needs protect it by damnatory clauses. He reserves weapons of this kind for one class, and one class only for an unbelief that was moral rather than intellectual, and that believes not the truth because it has pleasure in unrighteousness. 'If any one love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be anathema" (1 Cor. xvi., 22). He foresees the prospects of heresies or sects springing up within the