with Pilate, but, What is Error? They seem to me so zealous in detecting error, and then denouncing it as heresy, that they have little time or appetite for the nobler and happier quest. Perhaps it is a weakness of mine, perhaps I am very wrong, but somehow so it is, that I look out for what is good and true in a Christian and a Church, rather than for what is questionable. Indeed, I confess myself sadly deficient in one of the much valued Church-senses-I have not the fine nose of the heresyhunter. And I confess that I neither wonder at the number and variety of Churches, nor much blame any of them for their persistence in being. I even think that in the present actual state of things they are most of them, if not indeed all, inevitable and a necessary good and evil. Their action and re-action on one another could perhaps ill be spared as yet. It is quite a commonplace, of course, that each Church began with the maintenance of some neglected truth, or opposition to some cherished error. In this was its raison d'être. That then each Church took to exaggerating its own special truth, till other truths were dwarfed by it, overlaid, and cast into the shade, while at the same time it lost sight of or even denied the truth hidden in the error it protested against, is also a common-place. And if this be so, I and many others herein find our justification in giving the hand, as opportunity allows, to all, while identifying ourselves exclusively with none; content, till a better day shall dawn, with the common all-embracing name of Christian.

"I wonder at no born Churchman in the present day deliberately remaining in the Church of his fathers. Two things the Churchman urges, which his Nonconformist brother too little heeds. The first is the fact that, in this Great Britain of ours, Christianity has for more than twelve hundred years developed itself as history shows. To go no farther back than Augustine, thus-and not otherwise it has been; and it is idle to quarrel with the past, equally idle to ignore it. Theoretically right or wrong, this is what in God's providence has been; and the Englishman who does not choose to cut himself off from the relation finds himself a member of a Church whose history reckons by centuries, and which was for long the only Church in these realms. Then he is not without his scriptural satisfaction too. For, studying the Book, he finds that God is as much the author of the nation as He is of the family, and thinks that as there should be a family recognition of God, so also a national .." Here there were some slight, though courteous, manifestations of dissent-but he continued:

دو

"I think the general principle may be admitted in the abstract, and as a general principle merely,-without its being understood to involve that any particular embodiment and

manifestation of it is wise, or even tolerable. And I was going to say that, while the thoughtful Churchman thus thinks, and feels himself entrenched on strong ground; yet, so palpable and so enormous are the anomalies and the evils which the National Church has incorporated with her very being, that I can neither wonder at nor regret the rise of a thoroughly antagonistic Nonconformity, which has been as great a blessing to the nation as ever the Church has been. It would be an evil day for England if the sun of Nonconformity were to go prematurely down. In the face of so many utterly unscriptural things that go to make part and parcel of the National Church, all honour, I say, to the men who, foregoing all this world's favour, drew forth their New Testaments, and protested in the name of the Lord against all that was contrary to His will, all that was opposed to the simplicity that is in Christ. I think the Nonconformist can far more easily justify himself out of the four Gospels, and the Apostolic Epistles (if they are the only source of guidance and authority) than the Churchman; and ill indeed could he have been spared from either the religious or the political history of the country."

Here the speaker paused. But the assembled guests begged him to proceed, and, after a little interchange of remark with one another, he again complied

"In like manner, coming on to the particular Churches, I cannot any more wonder at the doctrinal differences which form the basis of several. Take Calvinism, for instance; not indeed as caricatured by ignorant men, whether friends or opponents, but as held by thoughtful Christians. It is such a complete work of human intellect, so compact and hard and water-tight, as to have extorted the admiration of even such thorough outsiders as Lessing, for example; while its crystalline clearness and hardness have at the same time excited a natural and desirable antagonism, which it would have been a great calamity to miss. I take it both the Calvinist and his opponent have each a partial hold on deep and fundamental truths, or half-truths rather, perhaps. Possibly the truth is too grand, too vast, too subtle, too vitally flexible, to be compressed into any system, to be congealed into unchangeable formulas.

"As to ordinances. When the Baptist sees how much evil has grown out of the merging of the individual in the mass, is it to be wondered at that he should make an earnest stand for individualism in religion? that he should insist on the personal? and that his eye should rest, perhaps even disproportionately, on those things in the New Testament which seem to justify him, and that he should press for some authoritative precedent before he consents to the indiscriminate admission of children into the

Church? It appears to me that much that he pleads ought to be conceded;-much, but not all. For when others are led to recognize the sacredness as well as tenderness of the family relation, the ties that knit parent and child, who can wonder that the mighty parental instinct and yearning should prompt to an anxious scrutiny of the Scriptures for that which-shall not only warrant the father in placing his child side by side with himself in the Church-but shall thereby also additionally justify itself as proceeding from the author of the relation and of the yearning? And then, who can wonder that stress should be laid on the close connection, from the very beginning in patriarchal times, of the child with the father in the relation to God? or, that the baptizer of infants should plead that, in view of all that had been, he must have a distinct warrant for the omission and refusal before he concedes it?"

I am sorry that space is wanting for the record of many other things spoken in this spirit. But on this and other occasions all the chief churches of the day, with their specialities, were kindly and freely touched on, and with the effect too of bringing their various representatives then present much nearer together. Indeed, after the conversation which ensued when Mr. Sydney brought his free observations to a close, one of the guests asked why they, then sitting together at that Round Table, should not, with the easy freedom of the early Churches, observe the ordinance of the Lord's Supper there and then. And, strange to say, the face of the Friend even brightened at the proposal, and he said,

"Friend Sydney, I thank thee for thy remarks, and for thy hospitality, and for bringing us together thus. Truly my spirit is refreshed, and I feel in unity with thee and with thy guests, and am permitted to feel free to break bread with thee and my other friends here."

And sitting there at that Round Table, with none first and none last, not even any primus inter pares, but passing the extemporized elements from one to the other, as if all constituted one family, the various guests ate and drank, and meditated on that Life, and Death, and Resurrection, which should make all who believe therein one in their common Lord. . . .

They were loath to separate. They had shaken hands with one another cordially, and many a manly eye was moist with an almost new affection. And still they lingered. Twilight was stealing over the landscape. The evening star was beginning to be discernible through that oriel that looked to the West. And still the blessed feeling of unity detained them in the chamber that seemed to remind them of that ancient "guest chamber,"

where once a certain passover was eaten. Then Mr. Sydney spoke again :

"My friends, I know not how to express my gratitude to God and to you for this blessed hour. From my heart I thank you, for honouring my place with your presence. One thought comes to me again, vividly and powerfully, which I have often had; and, with your kind permission, I will so far still intrude as to give it utterance. Here we are, members of most of the Christian Churches of the land. We have, during these pleasant days, freely interchanged our mutual convictions; and this with the effect, not of increasing our mutual distance, but actually lessening it. Would it not be a blessed thing if there could be for a time, a sort of "God's truce" with all Churches?—and that, instead of seeking to justify ourselves, and convince our brother that he is all wrong and we are all right, we should try to understand each other's position better, and see with each other's eyes? Would it not be well, for a time, and by way of experiment, (surely legitimate) that we should all seek to find out how much truth there is in an antagonistic system?-so that, without giving up one iota of what we have, we may perhaps come to possess more; or, at all events, learn the happy art of respecting and loving those from whom we still may feel compelled to differ? If something like this Round Table experience could be enjoyed all over the land, I fancy it would be for pure unmixed good alone. But though, perhaps, that cannot be, we may, at all events, all unite in the holy resolve that all of us in our several circles will do our utmost to try and bring Christians of all Churches nearer together. King Arthur, if the fanciful conceit may be pardoned, instituted the Round Table of ancient chivalry. The knights were all one and equal. The table was round, that there might be no dispute for priority, and no rivalry, and no jealousy. I have no idea of the design with which this Round Table here was constructed in this peculiar chamber; but if, from the conversations we have held, and the intercourse we have enjoyed, and the ordinance we have observed together, we can, when the time for parting comes, separate with the resolve I have mentioned, we and many others everywhere may have reason to bless God that we ever sat together at this Round Table."

He ceased, and one of the guests rose and said;—

"Why cannot we who are here present before God, each one resolve, in his own heart, henceforth, to do all in our power to promote the reign of Christian brotherhood? The day for

"orders," especially among Protestants, has passed; but without vows, without rules, without a formal embodiment, why should we not quietly regard ourselves as a brotherhood, and labour to

bring others into unity with us in this matter? Let us consider ourselves Christians of the Order of the Round Table."

The word fell on prepared hearts, and seemed as one of those apples of gold in baskets of silver that Solomon spoke of. "Good-good," exclaimed some. "Amen," said others, in a tone of devoutness. And they hoped that the happy word would prove a seed-word, that would live and bring forth fruit. And they resolved that, in their future intercourse with Christians and Churches, they would bear in mind that their own relation to their true king might in some of its aspects be very well illustrated by the relation of Arthur's knights to himself, and, thinking also of the way in which St. John, in the Apocalypse, represents God's chivalry, they determined to cherish in their hearts the idea of being

CHRISTIANS OF THE ORDER OF THE ROUND TABLE.

THE PROVERBS AND THE PRAYER OF AGUR.

TRANSLATION.

1. Words of Agur, son of Jakeh-even the Oracle: the man spake unto Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal.

2. Surely I am more stupid than a man, and I have not a man's understanding.

3. I have neither learned wisdom, nor have I the knowledge of that which is holy.

4. Who hath ascended into heaven, and descended? Who hath gathered the wind in his fists? Who hath bound the waters in his garment? Who hath fixed all the boundaries of the Earth? What is His name, and what is His Son's name? Dost thou know?

5. Every word of God is pure: He is a shield to them that put their trust in Him.

6. Add thou not to His words, lest He rebuke thee, and thou be found a liar.