and all manner of small alleviations which may well be passed from one to another, so as to diminish the feeling of isolation, which becomes one of the most piteous trials of protracted sickness.

We believe that such aids would be above all valuable in the lower middle class, where there is very little knowledge of the kind of books that would be desirable, or even of the way of procuring them, yet where there is plenty of intelligence to use them. We have heard of a sick tradesman to whom Dean Goulburn's Personal Religion came like a revelation; he read it, studied it, and we believe died by the light it opened to him. Their narrower aims, their habitual employment, and want of all training in using leisure_must_much increase the tedium of a lingering disease; and the relations and friends are necessarily less able to bestow time in amusing the sufferer, or else can offer little for the mind to feed upon. It would thus be specially advantageous if they could be put into connection with some society that would suggest fresh interests, and put into their hands means for occupationoften, perhaps, opening their hearts to think of others', more than of their own, trials. Indeed, when illness or infirmity begin in a healthy family of any class, there is often amazing ignorance of the common practical details of nursing, as well as of means of alleviation or amusement. At first there is terror and constant solicitude. Then as the sufferer lives on, with no great change, a weariness, and almost an indifference spring up, the effect of custom, but most distressing to the invalid, who is facing the prospect of years of helpless monotony and confinement. And it is just then that relations say, 'No immediate danger,' and deny the patient the aid of the Church, lest the visits of a priest might try the spirits, or be alarming! But if a friend suggested some means of interchange of books, or enlargement of interests, the less might lead to the greater, and works like Sickness; its trials and blessings, Sunshine in Sickness, Henri Perreyve's beautiful Fournée d'un Malade, or even the adapted English version, From Morning to Evening, might open the way to new thoughts, and to an appreciation of the blessings, rather than the pains, of the seclusion of the sick chamber.

In fact, one or two small guilds have been for some time in operation, but mutual aid and intercession has not formed part of their scheme. Thoughts on Invalid Life was the first step in the establishment of a society of larger scope, containing clerical associates who undertake to correspond with any member who may desire it, and in case of need to visit

and minister, either as friend or priest, though not without due sanction. This Society, with the full support of several Bishops, among whom we may mention those of Winchester and Bedford, was inaugurated on the Feast of the Transfiguration, August 6, and is to number in its ranks both rich and poor, so as to give all the power of benefiting by the communion of spirit that it provides. Of course, where the parish priest and the patient are on full terms of confidence, there would be no interference, and the name of the Bishop of Winchester as president is sufficient guarantee that there would be no invasion of the clergyman's rights. But we are persuaded that numbers of clergy would find that they were much assisted in benefiting their chronic invalids by bringing them into connection with something beyond the narrow circle of their own parishes, which would supply them with food alike for the spirit and the intellect, and provide them with minor pleasures and pursuits. And where the clergyman, from lack of time or from other causes, finds that the needs of the invalids in his parish cannot be met by himself or his curates, he may thankfully avail himself of such assistance. What a satisfaction it would be in some of the winter quarters of pulmonary patients if an authorised chaplain, elderly perhaps, and, it might be, incapable of public duties, could be at hand for the house-to-house visitation that is almost impossible to the regular clerical staff. And in town parishes, where the overworked clergy can only give a space allotted long before to each call, and absolutely are unable to wait for the favourable moment when their visit would be a blessing instead of a burthen, surely it would be well to resign the charge of such cases to one, perhaps himself trained in the school of sickness, set aside from those unceasing labours that make the tread rapid, the speech jarring, to fretted nerves. Here is a suggestion of Mr. Brinckman's which might work in with this guild :

'In towns we clergy might take a hint from the army. Why not have one or two clergymen always present at some well-known central spot on duty day and night? In some places there are clergy in plenty to work the plan. If three clergymen had to be together for twenty-four hours, to go whenever sent for, it would not only be good for the sick to know where to apply, but it would draw us clergy closer together to live and work together like this. People would always send for the clergyman they knew and wished to have; but there are many strangers who do not know where or to whom to send. This plan may seem impracticable; but in large towns I can see no reason why it should not only work well, but also help the Church very much in her efforts at getting to work amongst people.

People do not attend much to notices on church doors, so it would be as well, besides having these notices of the readiness of the clergy to visit the sick painted up, for the incumbent to give notice very frequently on Sundays that he or any of his assistant clergy would be always ready to come at any time, in cases of sickness of any sort.'— Brinckman's Notes on the Care of the Sick, p. 242.

Such a central lodge or place of call, near some great junction station, with a regular resident chaplain, and assistants within call, might be of infinite service, if made known to a wide number both of clergy and laity, as might be done through notices and Church papers.

In The Day of Rest there have been some admirable papers of Miss Ellice Hopkins on the power left to invalids of exerting themselves for the good of others. As the author of An Invalid's Day says:

'An invalid may find out innumerable ways of helping and cheering other sick people, and especially sick children, who so readily respond to all attempts to give them pleasure, and to draw off their minds from their own ailments. And although she may sigh over the impossibility of seeing the faces of her sick friends here, she may make herself familiar with their characters, and minister to their needs through others, and look forward to a bright meeting with them when suffering and sorrow shall have passed away for ever.?— An Invalid's Day, p. 47.

Mutual help is specially valuable in the isolated life of these prisoners, but there is no need to confine them to the thoughts of one another. Many tasks for the benefit of the Church or the poor can be found, which press heavily on the busy, and can be well, even elaborately performed in the leisure and seclusion of home. There are mental works, such as organisation, copying, accounts, missionary correspondence, where the head is clear and strong; needlework, illuminating, and many a merely mechanical occupation for the weaker and more uncertain. It often is most desirable that it should be a task such as to call the sufferers entirely out of themselves, and open their minds and sympathies to a wider, freer, more healthful life, giving pleasant interests to muse over in hours of inaction or wakefulness. Books that divert and enlarge the mind are very desirable, and the guild proposes to lend them round, and also to make known special needs and wishes in the magazine that should be a part of its constitution: e.g. a sick girl is longing to carry on her German, and has nothing to read. She advertises, and books find their way to her. Another patient longs for a pattern for fretwork. One is lent. But, above all, the great work should be the means

of bringing home to the lonely sufferers the power of the Communion of Saints.

'A member of the one great family in heaven and earth has a share in all its prayers and Sacraments, and the more she realises this, and feels the blessing of this membership, the less will she feel set aside from communion with her kind; the less will thoughts of self and self only engross her mind; the less solitary will she feel in her sick room.'-An Invalid's Day, p. 41.

Nor is it merely a matter of personal happiness. The invalid portion of the Church can be actually a great force. The theory of the religious life is that the 'hermits blest and holy maids' pray for the needs of the Church militant, and intercede for the sinful world. Our invalids are recluses of God's own making. Even if they meet not face to face, they can agree on earth what they shall ask of God in heaven.

'Thousand sympathetic hearts
Together swelling high

Their chant of many parts.'

And if there be, as suggested, fixed devotions for certain hours, not compulsory, but dependent on the power of the patient, his brother's prayer' will not be 'unknown to each,' and who can tell the strength and power before God of such united supplication? There are many who, like the late Anne Mackenzie-one of the most wonderful of invalid workerswelcome a period of severer sickness, 'because they have so many to pray for,' and they would assuredly hail the means of so interceding in concert. Do we not know of answers to prayer, such as Bishop Patteson's deliverance from wreck, while his former governess was praying for him at midnight? Mr. Brinckman, a chaplain of some years standing, tells us he has seen effects of prayers and Sacraments that a Roman Catholic would have claimed as miraculous, and that would have removed in his mind any doubt (if he had ever had any) of their efficacy and supernatural force. It is surely our bounden duty to make fresh efforts for the extension of the Church's full blessings and privileges to those who, without being in a state of imminent danger, may, if left to themselves or to indifferent friends, waste years in a mournful, useless, almost heathenish loneliness, instead of being awakened to the full sense of the blessings, the powers, the influence given by the fact of being the one in the family who 'goes on before bearing the cross in the steps of the Saviour; and the sick room, instead of being dreaded and avoided, may become the

centre of home, the place for seeking love, sympathy, and counsel.

We are not bound to speak of the details, or how the plan. is to be carried out, but we strongly recommend clergy, invalids, and those concerned with them, to consider the subject brought forward in the books here noticed.

ART. VII. DIOCESAN SYNOD, OR CONFERENCE, OR BOTH?

1. Diocesan Synods and Diocesan Conferences; their distinct Character and different Uses. An Address delivered in the Diocesan Synod held in the Cathedral Church of Lincoln, on Wednesday, September 20, 1871. By CHR. WORDSWORTH, D.D., Bishop of Lincoln.

1871.)

(London,

2. The Laity counselling the Church; or, Diocesan Conferences. A Charge delivered at his third Visitation, May 23, 1878. By JAMES AUGUSTUS HESSEY, D.C.L., Archdeacon of Middlesex. (London, 1878.)

3. A History of the Christian Councils. By the Right Rev. CHARLES JOSEPH HEFELE, D.D., Bishop of Rottenburg. Translated from the German, and edited by WILLIAM R. CLARK, M.A., Prebendary of Wells, and Vicar of Taunton. Second Edition. (Edinburgh, 1872.)

4. The Councils of the Church, A.D. 51—381. By the Rev. E. B. PUSEY, D.D. (John Henry Parker, Oxford, 1857.) 5. Sanctissimi Domini nostri Benedicti Papæ XIV. de Synodo Diocesana Libri tredecim. (Venetiis, MDCCLXXV.)

6. Concilia Magna Britannia et Hiberniæ, a Synodo Verolamiensi A.D. CCCCXLVI, ad Londinensem A.D. CIOCCXVII. Accedunt Constitutiones et alia ad Historiam Ecclesia Anglicana spectantia. A DAVID WILKINS, S.T.P., Archidiacono Suffolciensi et Canonico Cantuariensi, collecta. (Londini, 1736–1737.)

AMONG the many striking and hopeful characteristics of the great Church revival of this age, the general conciliar movement is not the least striking or hopeful. Wonderful, indeed, beyond all forecasting, and surpassing the visions of the most sanguine faith, have been the fruits of that great outburst