take to suppose that Paris is the capital of France, that it is a small town somewhere in India or China or Central Africa; it is more than probable that his disciples would go a good many different roads, each of which led away from Paris, not to it. So, in religious matters, one may hear different teachers (each of whom looks from a different point of view,) give directions which differ widely from each other, but which, nevertheless, point towards the central figure of true religion-Christ: but I am afraid there are other teachers whose advice would lead men who followed it as far astray as the geographical blunders I imagined about Paris would do. The final decision as to who are right and who are wrong must rest with God alone: but, this is a logical certainty, that two opposite assertions cannot both be true; and, as it is not in the power of the State to decide between them, the simple and sensible course is to let them all alone, to stand or fall by their own merits."

"Think, though, my friend, must you not now and then 'to do a great right,' do a little wrong? Look at your poor Ireland, for example. The Roman Catholics are now nearly eight times as many as the Protestants. Your Government took away their churches and their revenues, and now it makes the eight people pay for the church and the priest that the one only goes to. Oh! but that is a grand spectacle! it is so just― it is so generous! It says to Dives, here, my dear-here is more purple and fine linen, and more good things to eat. It says to Lazarus-you get out-you go to your dogs. If I were an Irish Roman Catholic, how I would love and honour England for making me pay for what I would not have as a gift. Now, even if it would be just a little wrong for a Protestant government to pay one set of men to preach Popery, and another set to preach Protestantism, would it not be so very, very right and good to give back to the Roman Catho

lics a little of what you have taken from them; and would it not make the good fathers so happy and contented when they see the State disposed to 'level them up' to an equality with their heretical confrères? Would not these great goods make up for any tiny little evils that they might involve?" "I have not," said Hugh, 66 one word of defence or excuse for the establishment of the English Church in Ireland. I do not approve, as you know, even of the establishment of a Protestant Church in Protestant England. All objections to a State Church in England hold equally good in Ireland, while there is in that country not even the excuse sometimes made for the establishment here—that it provides a church for the poor; for, in most parts of Ireland, an immense majority of the poor will have nothing to do with it. This monstrous injustice keeps up a constant sense of wrong in the minds of the Roman Catholics, and engenders, no one knows how much of malice, and all uncharitableness, on both sides. The only right and wise course, as far as I can see, is simply to abolish the Irish Establishment, making, of course, such provisions as would secure from loss those who now hold office in it, and have therefore a vested life interest in it. As for paying the priests, I doubt whether they would so far forget the claims which their Church makes, as to stoop to be paid. If they did, I believe they would bring upon themselves the scorn of all other Catholics, for condescending to sacrifice their independence, in order to get money from a State which they believe to be heretical. You must make men loyal by being just to them; not by bullying them first and bribing them afterwards. Give equal rights to Protestants, Roman Catholics, Jews, to every man, in fact, without respect to his creed, and then there is no excuse for disloyalty."

“Ah, my friend, you are no better; I fear, your symptoms are rather worse;

power; above any earthly thing you like to mention. But let me ask you, what would art itself be without patronage? The artist I look on as the great man; the patron, though a rich man, may be a very little man, but still the one cannot do without the other. The higher must be supported by the lower. So I think it the duty of the State to be a munificent patron of religion, and to clothe the Church with that wealth and dignity which give so much importance to the cause which they adorn; to place its ministers in good positions, and to ennoble its officers, so that the best blood in the land need not be ashamed to belong to it. Did you ever give sufficient weight to these considerations ?"

But, sir, I think that all their weight goes into the scale against the patronage of religion by the State."

"My dear boy, you astonish me; you do indeed. Pray consider my nervous system; I am not so young as I

once was.

66

But what can you mean?"

This, sir; that you have no more right to use illegitimate means to support religion, than you have to use false evidence, and illogical reasons, to support a truth which you find it difficult to prove."

"Oh, my lad, I am afraid much learning has made you-ah- too particular. What can there be illegitimate in holding out the prospect of wealth and power as an inducement to first-class men to enter any profession? You don't think it's wrong for a young man to go to the bar because he sees a vision of himself, in mature life, wearing the ermine of a judge; and then, a little later on, in the robes of a Lord Chancellor. Then why should it be wrong for another young man to take holy orders, because, in like manner, hope has told him a flattering tale, as to how she saw him in a

mitre and lawn sleeves, and heard him make such beautiful speeches in the House of Lords."

"I do not," said Hugh, "think the motives you mention illegitimate ones for entering any profession, except the highest and most sacred of all, that in which a man devotes his life to the service of God and His Church. They are quite adequate to make a man work hard and steadily. They are perfectly lawful, for they urge a man to aim at objects which in their right place are themselves good; and, if a man strive for them fairly, trying to win them by deserving them, the very effort after them will make the man better and more useful, even if he fail, as he most likely will, to attain the height of his ambition but any selfish motives, or any motive short of a supreme desire to promote God's work, must be inadequate to make a man what he ought to be in the service of God. If a man is looking constantly for some prospective worldly advantage from his work, he must lose sight of his real reward, the glory of winning souls for Christ. While, as to entering the Church from such motives, it seems to me that the State, in offering "great prizes," which are attractive to all men, godly or ungodly, tempts men to the commission of a sin, for which I should not like to try to find a name; when it is remembered that every candidate for deacon's orders has to state solemnly that he trusts that he is inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon him that office."

forms of service, which the State Church must enforce. Men seem to lose sight of the evil of solemnly stating that which they do not wholly believe. How this system blunts and dulls the fine sense of honour, is continually seen in the manner in which many clergymen object to use, but nevertheless do use, the same solemn words of confident hope over the graves of all men alike-the same for the believer, who, after a holy life, dies in humble faith in his Redeemer, as for the unbeliever, who, after a life of vice, dies asserting that he has no soul, and that there is no God. They do not believe what they say, and yet they say

it."

"But," said Mr. E., "you would not surely wish to require a clergyman to pronounce by implication his opinion as to the eternal state of the departed."

"No, indeed, sir; nothing could be further from my wishes. It is just this very pronouncing an opinion to which I object. It is not for us to judge the dead. That awful prerogative belongs only to God. There can be no want of charity in simply saying nothing on the matter, while there does seem to me a want of truth in expressing hope and trust for which there is no basis. Yet the State makes the clergy do this whether they like it or not."

"Ah, well, my boy, a great deal that you say sounds very true to me, but I hardly know if I fully apprehend all you mean. I have been walking a good many years in the old ways, and one does not easily get out of the beaten path, along which one's ideas have travelled so long."

"I hope, sir," said Hugh, "you won't think me too dogmatic."

"Oh no, my boy, not the least. I like every one to speak out; and if you'll come back to the Church, which I'm afraid you never will, and if I get any influence with Government, which I am sure I never shall, I will try and get them to make you a Bishop."

Thank you, sir," said Hugh. "I

can say Nolo Episcopari, without any mental reservation. Good bye."

When we got home, we saw that something had occurred at which my uncle had been very much annoyed. "What's the matter, father?" said Hugh.

"Matter!" he replied; "I haven't been so vexed for I don't know how long, as I was this morning with Mr. Ketcham, a member of Sir George Chancey's election committee, who called to tell me that Dr. Twoshoes was dead, and his archdeaconry desolate. He first preached a short funeral sermon on the virtues of the deceased, and on the importance of having a fit successor. Next he deplored my blindness to the merits of Sir George, as a guide, philosopher, friend, and champion of the Church, and hinted at the powerful influence that he might exercise in the making of the new appointment. Oh! I can't tell you half he said; but he crawled and coiled round and round about the subject, till I lost all patience, and said, "Pray, sir, do come to the point; don't be afraid of hurting my feelings. What you mean is this (though I feel sure you are not commissioned by Sir George Chancey to make any such offer), that if I will ‘rat, and vote for Sir George, you think he will do his best to put me in the place of the late lamented Dr. Twoshoes." Then, oh! he hoped I would not misinterpret his motives-he should have been-what I forget, but he implied that his earthly happiness would have been complete if he could have secured my vote and interest for Sir George; but he knew the delicate sense of honour which, &c., &c., high principle, &c., and so on, till I was almost sick. He hadn't the grace even to be savage with me for what I said. Oh! what a sin and shame it is that holy things should be hawked about, bartered, and sold! The sin of those men was great, who sold sheep and oxen, and changed