the thought, the feeling, or the action, must be injurious to the nation at large. We come here, to-night—I was going to sayto brighten up our Protestantism, but at any rate to give it fair play. I take it that every Protestant ought to be able to state the reasons why he is a Protestant; and we have come here to talk together on that matter. I do not know how it is here, but we have some people up with us who are ashamed of the name of Protestants. I don't know if you have that kind of Protestants or Reformers in Montreal. For my part it becomes more glorious to me every day. I am satisfied that the world never will be elevated, I am satisfied that the gathering which is promised, in this book,-the Bible-never will take place, nor the earth be subdued, only upon the principle of Protestantism. Whatever may be the beneficial change which will take place in the Romish doctrines and institutions, it will be on the principles of Protestantism. It can only be done on the principle of a free Bible, and the Bible supreme as directing conscience and thought -the Bible supreme in the Legislature-the Bible supreme in the office and in the store-the Bible supreme everywhere. Then we may look for the coming of our Lord with gladness and joy. ADDRESS. REV. G. M. MILLIGAN, B.A., TORONTO. This theme, I take it, means Romanism is hurtful to man in his relations to God, to his fellowmen, and to the state. A most marked difference between Romish and Protestant dogma exists in reference to the question, What is the Church? Rome affirms that the Church is an external organization consisting of those who profess the same faith; who unite in celebrating the same sacraments; and who profess allegiance to the Pope as the Vicar of Christ. Only those in this organization belong to the true Church. This conception of the Church was not held in the time of Gregory the Great. He declared that he who called himself universal patriarch was Antichrist. His successor, however, accepted the title from Phocas. In the middle of the ninth century, the idea of Nicholas I. of the Papacy, was that of a Theocratic monarchy. This idea was developed by all the arts of intrigue and politics. In the latter part of the ninth century, John VIII. advocated the choosing and crowning of the Emperor by the Pope. In 1073, Hildebrand instituted the celibacy of the clergy, to separate them from all ties of country and government. In 1100, the Pope claimed to be, not Pontifex urbis, but orbis, and not as previously, "Vicar of Peter and Paul," but of God and Christ. The Ban and Interdict became henceforth the terrible instruments of this desolating ecclesiastical usurpation. The Protestant conception of the Church is that it consists of the body of believers, and that it is used as a collective term to denote those who are vitally united to Christ by faith. Rome holds that the Church or corporation makes believers; Protesttants, on the contrary, allege that believers make the Church. Rome magnifies the corporation; Protestantism the individual. Rome makes man for the corporation; Protestantism makes the corporation for man. The false Romish view of the nature and function of the Church lies at the root of all that is both tragic in Church history and hurtful to human interests, religiously, socially and nationally. Wherever man's interests are subordinate to those of any corporation whatever, intellectual, moral, and social, hurt is inflicted upon those who are the subjects of such treatment. Business exists for the physical, mental and moral well-being of the merchant. When he lives for his business, instead of his business existing for him, he becomes its slave. The Spartans taught their youths to steal, in order that thereby they might become daring and wary, and swift of foot, qualities useful when they had to do battle for Sparta. The eighth commandment was violated for the benefit of the nation. In like manner, when individuals are made to exist for an educational system, instead of the system for the individual, there is educational hurt incurred. The machine system in education suppresses individuality of character and weakens the play of the intellectual powers. "On earth there is nothing great but man; in man there is nothing great but mind." When any institution, be it religious, political, or educational, is made king of men, it is a despotism which enslaves and demoralizes them. Even "the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." Now, Rome is a peril to human interests, because she subjects men to the dominion of a corporation, which she calls the Church. She hurts man in his relation to God. True religion places man in direct relation to God. He knows whom he believes, when he is religiously right. Man is therefore his own priest. He realizes that he must give an account of himself to God. He must know God for himself. The truth must commend itself to his conscience. Authority must not be made the basis of his faith, but truth personally perceived and accepted. Now, Rome is opposed to all this. She substitutes authority for argument, obedience for conviction, and places herself between the soul and its God. By her spiritual attorneyship she deadens the conscience; hinders, if not destroys, spiritual activity, and prevents the most solemn of all considerations swaying the heart and life-that of a man's individual responsibility to God for his beliefs and actions. What made Moses not fear the wrath of Egypt's king? Was it because he was a member of the Jewish people? Nay, rather, it was because he by faith saw Him who is invisible. The same object of faith, and not a corporation, sustained Luther before European potentates, ecclesiastical and civil, at Worms. Men become men by living, not for an organization, but for God, known, loved, and obeyed from personal conviction. Personality has no place in such a system as Rome. Everyone is the slave of a system, from the Pope downward; there is no personal liberty, other than it serves not the Lord, but the cause. In Rome, creeds are to be received on the simple authority of the Church. In her teachings, Rome is dogmatic in the most absolute sense. Such dogmatism induces the mind when anything is presented to it for its assent, to ask, not is a thing true, but, is it safe. The one great virtue in the Romish Communion is obedience, not obedience intelligent and loyal, but servile and unquestioning. Her members are not encouraged to find for themselves or give to others a reason for the hope that is in them. The deplorable effects of the passive obedience of the intellect demanded by Rome, is seen in her Hagiography, where she gives her people fables for food. Romish casuistry, moreover, with its doctrine of "Counsels of Imperfection," furnishes the people with excuses for lying, especially to those outside of her pale, who are to be treated with evasion and "economy." Falsehood and kindred expedients are allowable in dealing with outsiders, and are indeed praiseworthy if exercised in saving a soul, that is, in making a proselyte. As aids to devotion she does not counsel her people to seek the Holy Ghost to help their infirmities, but misleads them with such vanities as pictures, relics, and amulets. By her materializing traditions she deceives, now the senses, and now the intellect of men, and all that she may reduce her children to abject slavery to her despotic aims. Instead of bringing men nigh to God, she sets them afar off in ignorant and slavish dread. Under such a system the first and great commandment cannot be fulfilled, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul, and mind, and strength." II. Rome is hurtful to men in their relation one to another. She sets up walls of partition between man and man. She is so thoroughly anti-social that she even sets the first table of the law against the second. This follows from making the corporation the chief end of man. Corporationists in all ages make void the moral law. The Pharisees, in their day, taught men to violate the fifth commandment to do honor to the first. They taught children to withhold from parents pecuniary aid by devoting their funds to the Church. Jesuits have urged the breaking of the sixth and ninth commandments for the good of the Church. In the treatment Romanists are inculcated to mete out to heretics, Rome proves herself to be bitterly and hopelessly antisocial in her teaching and influence. Through the confessional and indulgences she in the most carnal manner sets a man against his fellows. With her doctrines of indulgences and of the confessional she puts a premium upon crime. Hence brigandism and agrarianism are consistent with membership in her communion. By such anti-social teaching she has produced a numerous progeny of Ishmaelites in all lands where she has had sway. III. She is hurtful to men as citizens. The state is the place where men find themselves in jural relations, as in the family they are placed in those which are domestic, and in the Church in those which are religious. In jural relations a man enjoys the right to make the most of himself as a citizen of this world. Jural relations secure for us to this end a twofold benefit-protection and education. By protection, a man is guarded against interference in the exercise of his powers bodily, mental and moral, for his own and others good. By educational advantages, as a citizen, I am aided by the state in fulfilling right functions, which I could not of myself discharge. By educational advantages, moreover, furnished by the state, there is free play given to the interchange of thought by such means as literature and free speech. For educational purposes the state should cherish and maintain the strong ties of a common language and literature, of the fine arts, the sciences and national customs. The state exists to enable society to attain the highest civilization and the greatest possible development of man. Justice or right is that which I claim as necessary to me as a man. The best political institutions are those which furnish the largest scope to all the faculties with which man is endowed. Rome, by her interference in political affairs, has proven herself the foe of man as a citizen. In her palmy days, she kept men of genius wielding pen and brush, not according to their bent, but according to her requirements. She has been the enemy of science, literature, art, domesticities, and every human interest which she could control. In proof of this, examine the countries and ages she has swayed. Contrast Spain with Scotland, the Province of Quebec with that of Ontario, and by her works you ascertain her genius and aims. What cure shall we prescribe for the dangers with which she menaces us? (1.) The evangelization of her subjects. By all wise means, organized and individual, strive to bring her subjects under the liberating and enlightening power of the gospel. (2.) The second way, to mitigate, and, we hope, finally to remove her evils from among us is the advocacy of equal rights for all. The state must cease to recognize men as Englishmen, Scotchmen, Irishmen, or Frenchmen. We must put an end to the recognition of race distinctions among us. There must be the abolition of separate schools. The state must educate her children within the same walls, and, upon subjects conducing to good citizenship only. There must be the doing away of all exemptions from taxation of religious teachers and properties. The state can only be free, can only be unified, when in the eye of the law no man is known as Jew or Gentile, bond or free. There must be no imperia in imperio. Men controlling the votes of citizens, be they lay or cleric, should be visited with severest penalties. Any corporate vote, be it that of a Church or railway company, is a menace to a free state, because it is an imperium in imperio. To effect these remedies constant and energetic service must be undertaken by all loyal citizens. The issue of a free and united country is worthy of the prayerful and devoted services of every patriotic Canadian. The difficulties to faith and courage are, though great, not insurmountable.— "Let us then be up and doing, With a heart for any fate, N |