fully estimated. But already the direst evils are manifesting themselves. At the South, the alienation of the Old School Presbyterians is complete, and the separation apparently final. In the Border States, where political opinion has been divided, and the estrangement bitter, the work of ruin has begun. An internecine war, springing up in families, is carried into neighborhoods, parishes, Synods and Presbyteries. Rival and opposition meetings are already called, periodicals are enlisted, organizations are formed, and endless litigation for the possession of property is in prospect. A large "Conference" was held in St. Louis, Mo., Aug. 15th, the object of which contemplates, as we are told, the organization of a "True Presbyterian Church" in that region. At this Conference, letters were read from influential Presbyterians in various parts of the country. The Rev. Dr. Plumer is reported to have said, he thought of four things that might be done. "One is to quit the Church and to run up a new flag; another is to wait and be cast out; another is to hold on quietly, testifying, protesting, and washing hands; the last is to play the hypocrite, pretend approval, and hurrah for nonsense and fierceness." Among other things, he said: "I have reliable information that the Old and New School will not come together. I think you may rely on that. Be docile. Look to God. You will not be hurt till your soul is hurt, and your soul will not be hurt till your conscience is defiled." The Rev. Dr. VanDyke, of Brooklyn, it is said, wrote in a desponding strain of the prospects in the East. He said there were two parties in the Church in the Norththe Radicals and the Numskulls. The first were blind; the second were cowards, and waiting for something to turn up. "The prospect for accomplishing any thing," concludes the Doctor, "appears dark at the present writing." The injury to the cause of Christianity in all this is incalculable; and no mortal can tell where, or when, or how, the mischief is to come to an end.

We will not conclude this brief paper without remarking, that the great, the fundamental mistake of these Old School Presbyterians, lies far deeper than even the most conservative of them suppose. The first question, which they need to ask,

is, What is the Church? And this question belongs not only to them, but to all the host of Sects about us. The next mistake of these Old School Presbyterians, who believe, or who used to profess to believe, in an organic historic Church, is, that they have forgotten the nature, office, province, and object of the Church; and have attempted to unite, and fuse, and blend, what God hath forever put asunder. Jesus Christ declared, "My Kingdom is not of this world." (John xviii. 36.) Yet he paid tribute to Cæsar; and Powers that be, are ordained of God." these two Kingdoms, the Church and the State, it is not within the province of the State to interfere in matters which belong to the Church; it is not within the province of the Church to interfere in matters which belong to the State. Each has its own distinct sphere, its own duties, its own ministers; and the peace, purity and prosperity of both, demand that the line of demarcation shall be strongly marked, and most religiously observed. The subordination of the

St. Paul said, "the (Rom. xiii. 1.) Of

State to the Church, and the subordination of the conscience of individuals to the Church, in matters which belong to the State, is Hildebrandism in its worst form. It is the old Inquisition revived; and no one can read the doings of this Assembly at St. Louis, without being reminded of the thumbscrew and the rack, the dungeon and the faggot. It is an error to charge upon Popery alone the spirit of religious persecution. No fouler blot stains the page of history than the record of political Puritanism in England and Ireland, and afterwards in New England. At the present day the same determination exists, to accomplish moral and religious ends by political methods; and in a form of Civil Government like ours, where Christianity is left for its support to the Voluntary Principle, and where the Minister's hold upon his Parish, and even the bread for his wife and children, depend, not unfrequently, upon some aspiring, unprincipled political demagogue, the danger with which the Clergy have to contend, is Erastianism in its worst and meanest form. Alas! that so many professed Ministers of the Gospel become its most unscrupulous tools.

Yet this is not Christianity. St. Paul, if he never fawned

upon Nero, he never assailed his Government, or its political abuses. The only message with which the Minister of Christ is charged, is the Gospel, in all its fullness. His Ministry is not of men, nor from men, but to men. His mission is to the hearts of his hearers. He is not a mere lecturer. He "makes known the mysteries of the Gospel." This is Christ's Theory of Reform: Make the tree good, and the fruit will be good. On such a method, and such a method alone, the Church can live, and flourish, and be One, in power and strength, under any form of Civil Government. Let truth, justice, temperance, humility, mercy, peace, brotherly kindness, charity—the whole circle of the Christian virtues-be inculcated upon such a basis, and all social evils, however deep-rooted, and of long standing, will adjust themselves gracefully, quietly, and effectually, without the ruin and destruction which must attend violent organic changes. Society is a growth, not a creation; and all true moral improvement and spiritual elevation must come from within, not from without,-from the Life of Christ, Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. This is the lesson of the age and times. not believe it. It is the riddle which Philosophy has been trying in vain to solve for thousands of years, to try until the end of time. Yet it is true. The history of the world and of all civilizations proves it. It is a hard lesson; especially in a day like this, when Christ is dethroned; when the policy, and heat, and dust, and noise of the hustings are carried into the pulpit; when political harangues defile, and commit sacrilege in, God's house; in an age of Sense rather than of Faith, and when a specious and bitter Infidelity is fighting its old battles under the guise of philanthropy.

The world does

and will continue Christ affirms it.

As Churchmen, we may well thank God, with devout and humble gratitude, for the evils which we have avoided, and for the high and truly Christ-like position in which the Church now stands before the American people. Would that she were true to herself and to her Risen and Ascended Lord. Would that her Ministers and her Laity were but half alive to the greatness of her opportunities. One of the noblest of our

Clergy, whom we will not name, but who is giving full proof of his sincerity by the earnestness and efficiency of his labors, thus writes to us; and with this quotation we close. "The more I think and observe, the clearer it becomes to me, day by day, that our Church is the only ARK for this People on the wide waters, as respects Government, National Unity, Philosophy, Manners, and Life, as well as FAITH. In all this region its growth is wonderful. The preparation is going on in hundreds of thoughtful minds."

ART. VI.-THE RITUAL LAW OF THE AMERICAN CHURCH.

TWENTY years ago, the mind of our Church was deeply moved, by questions pertaining to her own authority, as of the Body of Christ. This was the ruling element in the great Revival which had, long before, started at Oxford, and whose vast wave, like a mighty swell, undulating across the Atlantic, had, at the time of which we speak, gathered and broken upon our shores. Many of us can remember the agitation and mental turmoil which prevailed, and which culminated in the wordy struggle of the General Convention of 1844. Books and Pamphlets were scattered broad-cast on the troubled waters; from the bulky octavo of the Bishop of Ohio, to the coverless ephemeral of the job press. Ephemeral! Alas, the heavy and the light have all sunk, long since, to their deep and lasting repose. Memory still recalls how one respected Divine, in a book, 'opened the Mysteries;' and how another, in a speech, which filled the greater part of two days in General Convention, urged his Sixty Objections to Tractarianism. But, the sensation of shrinking from what then seemed the presumption of the former Treatise, and the painful endurance with which we sat through the latter Homily, have subsided into an amused recollection of tame and harmless issues. Of the Sixty Heads of Tractarian offense, we can now remember only the one which most struck us, by its novelty and originality, the 'Puseyitish use of salt.'

The great wave broke, and spread itself out, over the surface of the Church, in a thin and peaceful sheet of fertilizing waters; which sank into the soil, and quickened the living germs hidden there, the germs of ancient principles, imbedded in the Church's heart. These have since sprung up; and, in her renewed and better life, have brought forth fruit, thirty, sixty, aye, a hundred fold.

"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done, is that which shall be done; and, there is