it. In calm, yet energetic, plain-spoken, yet hopeful words, the Warden of Sackville College has done good service to our cause. Let us quote his words :

"It seems however to me, that they who employ this State argument betray a very inadequate notion of the way in which the Church acts, and has always acted. Its motion is not that of a machine, to be calculated with accuracy, and predicted beforehand; where one serious injury will disturb all regularity, and finally put a stop to action. It is that of a living body, where motions will be irregular, incapable of being exactly arranged and foretold; and where it is nearly impossible to say how much health may co-exist with how much disease. I remember going with a friend to an eminent physician; every symptom showed that he was labouring under a serious, and usually fatal illness. The physician told him that the organic injury was very great, very widely spread, very dangerous. But this was not the only inquiry. He proceeded by examination to elicit the facts that the general health was good, the strength good, the appetite good, the sleep good, the constitution vigorous. Then he changed his tone, and spoke of disease being lived out, of organic injury being repaired, of the efforts of nature proving successful: he hoped that it might be so in the present And the event proved that his hopes were well founded.

case.

"In like manner: had we been called on to judge what would be the destiny of the Church of England when she bound herself to Henry VIII., we might have been justified in saying that her race was run. We should have seen ample grounds under Edward VI. to confirm us in that belief. We should have said that a Church, whose Bishops took out patents to sit during pleasure, had sold her birthright. We should have said that a Church, whose oracle was Calvin, had forfeited her orthodoxy. We should have said that a Church, which surrendered everything that the state demanded, had become a state establishment. We might even perhaps have said that a Church which changed the first for the second Prayer-Book of Edward VI., had made an open profession of heresy.

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Through the first half of the reign of Elizabeth, though we should have noticed one or two symptoms of life, we should probably have thought the result more than doubtful; for if we found some external rights restored to decency, and some formulæ to orthodoxy, we should have seen Theologians defending the right of the sovereign, had she been a man, to perform ecclesiastical functions; and should have discovered that nine heretical articles were not obtruded on the Church simply because the civil power interfered. But, towards the end of the sixteenth century we should have been compelled to allow that there were unmistakable signs of life and recovery. The surpassing holiness of many prelates :-the high tone assumed by Churchmen the change of the position of altars, accompanied by a correspondent change of feeling with respect to the Sacrament of the Altar; the dignity re-assumed by the ritual ;-all these things would have obliged us as we passed along the reigns of the first two Stuarts, to confess that our preconceived opinions were wrong. Much we should still have seen to grieve us; the Supremacy of the Crown exercised in an

-

unwarrantable way, though usually to a good end; and the recognition of a Synod of Calvinians by the presence of English Prelates. The great rebellion would have been our criterion: and when we found the Church survive that, the inevitable inference would have been the precise converse of Gamaliel's,—If it be of GOD, ye cannot overthrow it.

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Again we might have doubted, when all the life and piety of the Church seemed drained away by the non-jurors. We should have seen worldliness, carelessness, formality, avarice, eating out the very heart of the establishment: convocation silenced: a Hoadley and a Clayton promoted for heresy: a Blackburn running his career of licentiousness unchecked: infidelity rampant: a defender of the Church allowing, 'It seems now to be generally taken for granted that the Christian religion has been discovered to be an imposture.' We should have found that the highest teaching of the Church was confined to dissertations on the authenticity and credibility of the Holy Scriptures;-to proofs that the Apostles were in all likelihood sincere, and our blessed LORD probably not an impostor: an Arian court, a cringing episcopate, a drinking and sporting clergy ;—all the higher mysteries of the Faith, the atonement, the indwelling of the HOLY GHOST, the power of the keys, expunged from sermons and from treatises; earnestness ridiculed as the badge of a schismatic; one Bishop only who made any pretensions to sanctity and ecclesiastical learning. Now again the case seemed desperate. Son of man, can these dry bones live? And I answered, O LORD GOD, Thou knowest.'

"A re-action followed. But the Church fought hard for many weary years against earnestness, and cast it out of her bosom; yes, and she fought hard against truth too; and her favourite teacher said that the being born again 'meant nothing-nothing, that is, to us, and in our circumstances.' And when earnestness forced its way into her pale, it, in its turn, attacked the Catholic faith. Calvinism spread further and further, lifted its head higher, and ruled with a stronger hand. All that was orthodox was lifeless; all that had energy was unsound.

"Then came the revival: and surely such a revival has never been vouchsafed to any branch of the Church. Like all other great reformations (whether for good or bad) its course has been from below upwards. Like all other great reformations it has gone on silently and steadily, not a great victory, and then a pause, and then another victory, and then another pause; it has sprung up, how, we cannot tell; it has come not with observation.' Persons seem to have imbibed truths which they had never heard. Year after year the movement has continued in an accelerated ratio. Year after year the stream has spread, not in breadth only, but in depth. Like the prophetic river, the waters were to the ancles. Years passed, the waters were to the knees. Years again passed, the waters were to the loins. And how then can we doubt that time shall be when they will become a river that cannot be forded, waters risen, waters to swim in, a river that cannot be passed over?'

"Those who employ this argument of State Supremacy to prove

that our Church has no life, or disquiet themselves and others lest there should be no life in her, use an a priori system of reasoning, which is manifestly already confuted. Solvitur ambulando may be very poor logic, but it is excellent common sense. The Austrian generals proved to demonstration that they ought, by every rule of war, to have beaten Napoleon. No reasoning was ever more satisfactory. The only misfortune was, that they did not beat him. A physician may pronounce the patient's doom, but if the man recovers, Galen himself will not persuade us that he is dead.

"And so to the alarmist now, I would say: Do you dare, on the strength of human reasonings, logical inferences, ingenious deductions, a canon here, an act of parliament there, an episcopal traitor of such a year, a base concession in such another year, an unresisted piece of tyranny at this epoch, a vain struggle at that; do you dare to dovetail these things together, and bringing forward your paper argument to tell me gravely that we have no life in us? I ask you-if there are no signs of life in the English Church, what signs of life would satisfy you? Go to one village after another, and every where you will find some mark of energy never known before. A new church, or a restored church, or a new school; fresh services, more frequent Communions, more frequent sermons, more assiduous visiting, more done for the poor, more claimed from the rich. You will find popular feeling every where changed. Twenty years ago the cry was for shortening the services, now it is for increasing them; twenty years ago we had two or three Colonial Bishops, now we have nearly five-andtwenty; then hardly a Church, except the Cathedrals, had daily service; now, in some six hundred, it is said: weekly communion was then unknown; now it is not unfrequent. And are we really called on to say that all this means nothing? that it is accidental? that it proves nothing as to the being, or to the well-being of the Church? A man looks well, moves rapidly, eats heartily, takes a lively interest in what is going on, displays considerable strength, and you tell me, -These are all but appearances; I can prove to you that that man is dying. Assuredly, before I believe you, I must have some better argument than that it must be so because it is according to the rules of art, according to the nature of things, that it was always so. accordingly I want better arguments in the parallel case now."

And

In the signs of life he might have mentioned the fact that for months past there has been daily Communion in the parish church of Stoke Damerel; and the present Penitential Mission of the Bishop of Oxford, attended as it was with the daily Communion, is one of the healthiest signs by which our days have been marked. And when this is the case shall we talk of despair, and hang our harps upon the willows? shall we look elsewhere for peace and comfort? shall we calmly and deliberately leave our Zion at a moment when, midst whatever difficulties, new life has been given unto her. GOD forbid. This were indeed an act of cowardice to flee from the post when the battle is to be fought; to leave the ship because a few angry billows are raging around her, forgetful that

there is One Who can say, "Thus far shall ye go, but no farther." As the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church, as a storm is full ofttimes followed by the brightest and most serene sky, so times of danger are ofttimes the prelude to glorious triumphs, and the Church comes forth clad in robes brighter and fairer than any she hath yet worn.

"To speak the plain truth," says Mr. Neale, "this decision of the Privy council will, it appears to me, according to the way in which it is met, be the greatest blessing or the greatest curse that the Church of England has ever known. If her priests look at each other, sigh, complain, say it is not to be borne, declare that it is enough to make them doubt of the reality of their Mother's claims, but do nothing: if we are told by the moderate men, the safe men, the men who like to act cautiously, the men who would not for the world commit themselves, that the time is not yet come, the time that the LORD'S House should be builded ;'-if the dignified clergy,-to use a common but nonsensical expression,-should hang as a dead weight on the efforts of their brethren, and prefer the safe and quiet enjoyment of wealth to the struggle that, if the Faith be upheld, must ensue, choos. ing rather to enjoy such pleasures for a season, than to suffer affliction with the people of GoD, then, indeed, the future is all dark. But if the feeling that a crisis has now really arrived,-if the resolution that the Church for which the LORD died, betrayed though she may be by some of those who ought to defend her, shall not be deserted without a struggle for which the State is little prepared,-if the Clergy will but remember that saying, 'He that loveth house or lands more than Me is not worthy of Me,'-if they are prepared to give up every thing but principle, to sell every thing but truth,-perhaps one of the most glorious times is at hand that the Church has yet seen."

Let then some plan of united action be matured, and speedily carried out. Let the Parish Priests instruct the people committed to their charge on the momentous interests now at stake; let them urge them to co-operate with them in demanding that justice be done to the Church, and her voice, long stifled, may be heard again. Let one and all work night and day; but, above all, pray daily and hourly, that none may fail. Then we may hope to conquer," and realize the blessedness of that saying, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

A CHURCH AND SERVICE IN TINNEVELLY.
(From the Colonial Church Chronicle.)

If one of our English were to find his way to Tinnevelly, he would feel a little bewildered too. Let us suppose him entering one of our native churches-my own at Sawyerpooram may serve

as a specimen, though there are very many better churches, and larger congregations, thank GoD, in Tinnevelly. Our friendly visitor must go early, that he may have time to see the congregation assemble. The church is but a temporary building, but it is tolerably neat, and, inside, has an orderly and ecclesiastical appearance. It has but one entrance for the people, and the chunam is all worn away from the steps by the frequent tread of the worshippers, assisted by the little children, of whom there is always a collection; for when the Tamul mother comes to church, she is obliged to bring her whole family, and the youngsters, when they become unruly in the church, are dismissed to the steps, where they amuse themselves till the service is over. Better this than that the mother should stop at home herself. Inside the door is the font, small and very plain, built up of brick and chunam. The polished chunam is quite black with frequent use. Of course our churches have neither galleries nor seats; the open area of the floor being polished chunam, which in some cases looks quite like marble, but mine is very rough; for I had no money to spare, and my church, which cost about £65, was built by subscriptions raised entirely within the district.

The next thing that our visitor will notice is the chancel, into which there is an entrance for the Clergy from the vestry behind it, and at the north and south sides of which are the low, plain reading-desk and pulpit, which are entered from the chancel, and are in fact in it. Just below the chancel, on either side, are a few chairs, for the officers of the institution and occasional visitors. Our friend may take one of these, and as it is now about a quarter of an hour before the time of service, the congregation is assembling. See, here comes a procession-fifteen couples of girls, with a respectable-looking young woman and an elderly matron bringing up the rear. Each has on a neat little spencer of printed calico, and her native cloth gathered round her, as decently, and, as it seems to me, more gracefully clothed than our European children. The elder girls have, besides a cloth thrown over the head, almost like a hood; while the younger, with their shining black hair, and their large bright eyes, and their never-failing gold ornaments in their ears, and their clear brown complexions, look very interesting, and I should say positively handsome. Each has her books, and especially her Prayer-Book, with the string in it marking the place for the collect for the day. These all take their places nearest to the chancel, on the right, by the chair of the missionary's wife, whose charge they are.

But here comes another procession,-140 boys and young men, with their heads cleanly shaven, and their long white dresses, and their books under their arms. These are the youths of the institution. They occupy the middle and left,-the little fellows being put in front, and the seniors ranged behind. I shall have much