not in vain, to her National Church to uphold the Catholic Protestant Faith!

The Church of England holds an unique position, and one so consonant to the genius of the people that she only has to go in for self-reformation, and rid herself of abuses, and put herself abreast of the age and of the masses, to make her spiritual influence almost irresistible.

The tolerance of her tenets and the universality and antiquity of her charter give her a vantage ground well-nigh without parallel.

There are three schools of thought which have always been represented in her midst, and any attempt on the part of one of them to oust the others would be fatal to her catholicity.

It is much to be desired that the laity should exercise more authority in her councils than they do at present, and the erection of a "House of Laymen" is of good augury for the future.

The Rev. Mr. Carlile, by his founding of the "Church Army," is aggressively attacking the masses in a way which deserves all praise.

And the Church of England Sanitary and Social Guilds are well up to date.

It appears to me that the Church of England is not sufficiently conscious of her strength until the enemy at her gates calls for united action. It is wonderful how signs and symbols bind communities together, as, for instance, the Freemasons, the Foresters, and the Blue Ribbon Army.

Why should not the Church of England adopt in the future a badge which should be worn by all those who have been or shall be confirmed?

I

believe that such a simple device would be the means of keeping many a young boy and girl staunch to their vows, and strengthen them in a corporate, as well as in an individual, public acknowledgment of the faith.

We want something to remove that dead level of apathy, and that selfish, isolated, individual religionism which prevents the circulation through the body corporate of the life-blood of piety.

For real religion may be defined as that rule of life which regulates the conduct of man, woman, and child towards their God and towards their neighbour.

There are myriads and myriads, alas! in what should be Merry England who know nothing of the Ineffable All Good, and whose starving spirits and stomachs understand more about the neighing of a horse than of "their duty towards God and their neighbour."

The heirloom which the Semitic race has given to the World is Holy Writ, and yet we seem to understand the written witness as little as we do the living.

The First Book of Genesis opens with the words, "In the image of God made He mankind, male and female created He them," and yet the divine origin of the human race is made to mean that the female was not made in God's image, but the male was!

It is hardly likely that the Book of Genesis, which has furnished a musician with one of our grandest oratorios-Haydn's "Creation"-has yet had its superb simplicity exhausted. It may be that music has still to give to a yearning race a deeper insight into the awe-inspiring words, "The Spirit of God

brooded (as a bird) over the face of the waters." The Divine Mother of moist motion !

The fact is that religion, if it is to control humanity, must satisfy the instincts, the intelligence, and the heart of every man, woman, and child.

The knowledge of the All Good and Just is the science of sciences, and will be given to the humblest searcher after truth; for the humble enquirer after God may be likened to a volume of water which must find its own level.

The human family racially requires an Omnipotent Father, an Omnipotent Mother, and a Sinless Son and Intercessor. This Triune Trinity of Inexhaustible Love imposes no mental barrier, but with reverential awe may be approached by the highest intelligence as well as by the weakest child.

Nothing but a predetermined pride and persistence in sin can cut the Catholic cord which vitally connects the creature with the Creator.

What incalculable mischief may not have been wrought by the forgotten fact that there is a Holy, Heavenly Mother as well as a Heavenly Father, to whom man, woman, and child may in their dire distress pray?

Gentle reader, angels may well have wept and strung their harps as they contemplated the anguish of even a single soul, who, longing for good tidings which shall satisfy the softest sighings of humanity, is taught to believe that the tenderest tie of "mother" has no anti-type in heaven!

The sterner sex, strutting in the self-consciousness of being "lords of creation," have in many countries treated the "ladies of creation" as though they were

their slaves. In more civilized countries the attempt to re-adjust the relation of the sexes without regard to revealed religion, is having a tendency to produce effeminate men and masculine women. Celibacy and asceticism are once more in the air, and society sets lightly by the divine institution of marriage.

There is, however, a good leaven at work for the emancipation and freedom of women, and that more healthy tendency is due, in a great measure, to the strenuous exertions of a lady with whom, years ago, the author of this work had the honour of an interview. I allude to Mrs. Victoria Woodhull, now Lady Victoria Woodhull Martin. It was in the United States that Lady Victoria Martin, then Mrs. Victoria Woodhull, with her accomplished sister, laid, through a sea of misrepresentation and calumny, the foundation of her first success; but Lady Victoria Martin has long been the champion of the softer sex in this country, and the key to her final victory is in her reiterated enunciation that "The human body is a temple of the Holy Spirit." I have no reason to suppose that the views set forth in this work, except as regards the elevation of woman, would meet with Lady Victoria Martin's approval; but as a pioneer of social purity, Lady Victoria Martin stands facile princeps, and it is to be hoped that London has not heard the last of her lectures. In the meantime, that lady has my hearty good wishes for her sixpenny Magazine, The Humanitarian.

I must ask the reader's indulgence for this digression.

I would observe that the first book of Holy Writ

contains the germ of the Gospel, and in it is revealed the All-Motherhood of God in the Person of "The Holy Spirit of God," and to do despite to Her is, indeed, to provoke the Most High Husband and Father to say, "My Spirit shall not always strive."

Science has ever been descending from heaven to earth, and it is a mistake to suppose that the deepest scientists are not God-fearing men. It is quite a privilege to be living in an age like the present, when God is pouring down a very galaxy of gifts upon mankind. Still greater and almost awful is the responsibility placed upon us to use these gifts rightly.

The Holy Heirarchy of Heaven, without beginning and without end; the Ineffable, Almighty Love; Inscrutable, Invisible, Unbegotten Bridegroom; the Ever-Proceeding Bride; the Only Begotten Son; to whom all hearts-husband's, wife's, father's, mother's, son's, daughter's, brother's, sister's,-may be opened, all desires known; such is the object of our gratified worship! The patience of our Heavenly Mother knows no limits-"Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion upon the fruit of her womb? Yea, a woman may forget, yet will I not forget thee"!

Such is the transcendent theme, to the unfolding of which the reader is invited in the following pages.

ST. THOMAS'S DAY, 1899.