Mercy, my Judge, mercy I cry But Thou Thy bounteous Self still be, With blushing cheek and bleeding eye; And show Thou art by saving me. The conscious colors of my sin Oh! let Thine own soft bowels pay Those mercies which Thy Mary found, Oh! when Thy last frown shall proclaim When the dread "ITE" shall divide Let those life-speaking lips-command Oh! hear a suppliant heart all crush'd, Though both my prayers and tears com- And crumbled into contrite dust! bine, My hope, my fear-my Judge, my Friend! Both worthless are, for they are mine; Take charge of me, and of my end! And thus through the circling ages shall this Great Hymn of Doom be sung by the Church of Christ, until her faith shall be turned into sight, and the awful glories of the Judgment Morn shall more than realize the scene which her sacred poets, in all ages, have striven to paint! We venture to add a cento of our own, culled from the preceding translations. If it possesses any merits, they are due to the labors of those who have gone before us in this sacred task. DAY OF WRATH, THAT DAY OF BURNING! See the book exactly worded! Death and nature, mazed, are quaking, King, dread majesty possessing, While creation is awaking, To her Judge an answer making. Freely saving all confessing, Save me, Fount of every blessing! If we accept the reading of the Metz Breviary, the first stanza would be,— Rendered by Coles : Dies irae, dies illa! Crucis expandens vexilla, Solvet sæclum in favillâ. Day of wrath, that day amazing, Holy Jesu, with compassion Blessed Saviour, Leave me not in that dread day. Though my prayers are void of merit, All Thy ransomed saints desire; Lest I burn with endless fire! Weak and weary, Thou hast sought me, With Thy sheep a place provide me, With Thy Blood and Passion bought me, From the guilty goats divide me, BEFORE EFORE proceeding further, it will be convenient to glance backward for a moment upon the path which has brought us to our present position. Our object, it will be remembered, is to bring into view what thinking Christians take to be the inward essence of their religion. It was said, at the outset, that owing to the one-sidedness of the intellectual development of the present age, many are losing sight of what is deepest and most essential in Christianity; and since that which is essential to anything is that which is distinctive of it, the consequence of the superficial view of Christianity, now prevalent, is its being regarded as merely one of the many religions which have arisen at different times among the different races of men, all of which are substantially alike in their general principles, and only differ in unimportant particulars. "Christianity must take its place in the history of the world among other religions, and must be regarded as a point in the harmonious religious development of the race." It can, then, no longer be regarded as the one and only 1ERRATA. In the former paper in the preceding number of this REVIEW, p. 76, line 17, for " as originally stated," read, "as originally created;" p. 83, line 25, for "ideality, or external nature," read, "ideality, or essential nature;" p. 88, line 30, for "insists upon this course," read, "insists upon this conse quence." religion, the ultimate and absolute, the sole revelation of complete and universal truth. Now, no faithful Christian can tolerate an estimate of his religion, which, weighing the faith of a Saladin in a nearly equal balance with the faith of a St. Paul, leaves it only not quite indifferent, relatively, to absolute truth, whether he be a Christian or not. For a further consequence of the view in question is obviously this, the denial that the Christian doctrines have come to men by a special Divine revelation. For, if all religions are alike, then all are Divine, or else none are Divine. But all cannot be Divine, because the widest generalization cannot obliterate the fact that the various creeds of mankind contain contrary and conflicting doctrines, and a Divine revelation cannot be supposed to contradict itself even in matters of detail. This, therefore, destroys the exclusive claim of any particular religion to base itself on a Divine revelation, and such a claim on the part of Christianity cannot be allowed, but, if the religion is to be accepted, must be withdrawn or explained away. Yet, for the Christian to surrender this, is to surrender all. If Christianity has sprung out of the "religious development of the race," and is only a "point" in that development, how arrogant and how absurd is St. Paul's language: "Though an angel from heaven preach unto you any other Gospel than that which we have preached, let him be accursed." If "those things which are most surely believed among us" be cut from their Divine authorization, what is left of their certainty? What is to prevent positive belief from running out into doubtful opinion? What, but this, that the truths of Christianity come direct from the mouth of God is urged by the Apostle as our security," that we be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive?" It may seem needless to argue such a point; but to these simple issues are we brought by the scarcely disguised infidelity which finds voice even among those who profess and call themselves Christians. Now, as has been said, however destructive of essential Christianity the view we are considering may be, it is one which occasions no neglect of Christian morals; or, rather, such a view of Christianity leads to an exclusive consideration of its morality, because its morality is just what Christianity has in common with other religions. Morality is, in principle, the same thing the world over. However the social customs of different times and climes have affected the sphere of particular duties, duty, in its general conception, remains unchanged, because the moral nature of man is |