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5th. The last thing to be noticed might be this:-That the record of what Job said and did during these "months of vanity," as he called them, has instructed and edified the Church ever since, and will do so till the end of time.

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But for these "months of vanity," Job would most probably never have been heard of; or his name might only have occurred in some list of a number of good men, without any special mark of distinction. He owes all of what we denominate his sacred celebrity to those months of suffering, under which he chafed so much, and to the end of which he looked with such a longing-for deliverance. The book called by his name has, for thousands of years, been deemed a treasure by the Church; is studied still by intellects at once robust and devout, and is regarded as pregnant with the loftiest lessons. Hebrew prophets and Christian apostles alike refer to the character and the story of the Patriarch; place him on a level with Noah and Daniel, and cite him as an example of suffering and patience." His words have been listened to by the tempted and tried in every generation; thousands of hearts have been strengthened and sustained by them; eyes, eager and sympathetic, have gazed on the picture of the poor, naked, and desolate man, and have seen in his demeanour, and have heard from his lips, what has taught them endurance, fortitude, faith, trust in God under the clouds and darkness in which he sometimes hides himself, and adherence to the belief, at all hazards, that "the judge of all the earth must do right." If Job now looks back to any one portion of his life as more important than another, as less worthy to be deemed vain and unsubstantial, it is to these very months which he so misunderstood when he described them as he does in the words before us. So it is still; Christians have sometimes to admit into their houses what appears a dark and repulsive guest, and they find, afterwards, that they have been entertaining "an angel unawares." It may even happen that a season of calamity, sorrow, or loss, may be the turning point in a man's religious history; by bringing him to God in penitence and faith, it may be that which shall give to his eternity its glory and joy. Busy men, who never had time for reading or thought; men of the world, who were absorbed in its pursuits; such men have sometimes been detached from all the engagements of active life, and, at first, they have been exasperated by the feeling that they could do nothing; but just at that point God has met them, and they have found that the greatest work of life was waiting to be done, and that an opportunity was afforded them for doing it, and they have received grace to do it. "In their trouble they have sought the Lord;" they have "acquainted themselves with him," and have found "life and peace." It has been whispered in heaven, "behold, he prayeth ;" and the angels of God, who cared nothing for the man's glory and success in his worldly activities, have been interested in his solitary tears, and have rejoiced over his repentance ! In this way it may come to pass that, to a sinful, godless man, what was regarded as a period of loss-a time in which he must cease from activity and enjoyment that may just be the crisis which may make him capable of both, in the highest and sublimest sense, for ever!

In this way, the words of Job may admit of illustration and improvement. Of course, other aspects of the subject might have been presented, and many general practical lessons might now be added. But we content ourselves with what has been advanced, and leave you to make the practical application for yourselves." Now unto Him who is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy ""the God of all grace, who, after that ye have suffered awhile, can perfect, stablish, and strengthen you―to Him be glory, majesty, and dominion, now and for ever. Amen."

THE CATHOLIC REVIVAL.

II.-IN ITS RELATION TO THE ROMAN CHURCH.

By the Reb. .

In this second article it is proposed to consider the great Catholic Revival of this day, in its relation to the Roman church. Questions naturally enough suggest themselves to all observers of Catholic ritual, and all students of Catholic teaching such as these:-Is the movement designed to promote the re-union of England and Rome as one church, alike in doctrine and practice, or is it intended to promote a return to a primitive Catholic church, such as that of the third century, the church of Augustine and Anselm? Or is it designed to return to the status quo ante, viz., that in which it was at the time of the rupture of the Pope with Henry VIII., when the Romish church was not so developed as it is now? Or is it merely intended to revive the sacerdotal theory of the church, and to raise the Eucharistic supper to a place of supremacy in Christian teaching, as a sacrifice to be offered up by an officiating priest? In truth, the answer to these queries is not so easy as it looks, and doubtless Catholic Revivalists contain representatives of each of these ideas. In the minds of

. Statham.

many who sympathise with the Catholic Revivalists, there is no very definite understanding as to where in reality the movement will take them.

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Now one main consideration must not be forgotten, and that is how far legitimately this Catholic Revival, having its place in the English Church, may claim oneness with Rome ? will be seen, as we proceed to study the differentia, that the commonplace so often uttered, that Ritualists and Romanists are one, is neither honest nor just.

We shall gain clearer conceptions of the state of the case if we turn to the leaders of the Catholic movement who have remained in the English Church for nearly a quarter of a century, and who seem to keep, in this Revivalist movement, from direct union with Rome! There was, for instance, the early statement in Tract xc., which is manifestly in direct conIflict with the ultramontane ideas of Popish supremacy, and which, if persisted in, must for ever act as a barrier to union with Rome. "The confederacy of sees and churches, the

metropolitan, patriarchal, and papal systems, are matters of expediency or of natural duty from long custom, or of propriety from gratitude or reverence, or of necessity from voluntary oaths or engagements, or of ecclesiastical force from the canons of councils, but not necessary in order to the conveyance of grace, or the fulfilment of the ceremonial law, as it may be called, of unity." Not necessary! Mark that. Modern Romanism makes the supremacy of the Pope a sine quá non. This utterance may be locked at in two lights-as giving room for the Catholic movement if they could not get back to Rome, or as affording meanwhile an honourable resting-place, from whence they could ultimately march with fiying colours over the borders to the embrace of Pius. We cannot shut our eyes to the fact, that in reading the Catholic Revivalist literature, there is a secret determination to gain point by point, to carry with them gently and unsuspectingly all converts whose sympathies are merely with some aspects of Catholic doctrine, and then to carry the movement by a clever coup straight into the bosom of Rome herself. But it is the duty of the student to look calmly at the movement in its present state, and to see what keeps it from coalescing with Rome! Somehow or other a change has come over many of the literary organs of the Romish Church. Some of them, that said fair things for the Catholic Revival at first, now snarl at it and ridicule it. This looks as if they felt that it would not coalesce with Rome; nay, more, that it would fulfil the promise of the Tractarian leaders, and keep multitudes from Rome itself. It is a well-known fact, that in 1841 Cardinal Wiseman spoke

most courteously and tenderly of the Tractarian movement, and watched every sign of approximation to Rome with an eye of encouragement; but a different spirit seems to animate his successor, Archbishop Manning, who, in his letter to Dr. Pusey, "The Workings of the Holy Spirit in the Church of England," distinctly denies "the Church of England to be the Catholic Church, or any part of it, or

in any divine and true sense a Church at all." This strong utterance might be supposed to be accounted for from the fact that priests are ever strongly antagonistic to communions with which they were once connected; but this will not explain the altered tone of the Roman press. The ultramontane journal, the Weekly Register, October 12th, 1867, says :

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"RITUALISM DEFINED.-It seems to us-and this we say with all respect to those who differ from us on the subject that a Catholic journalist must either keep silence altogether on the subject of Ritualism, or else speak out what he and the immense majority of Catholics consider to be the truest thing to say on the subject. All Catholics, without a single exception, hold that the Anglican Church has no real orders, and that her recent approach to us is merely like the yokel, who once a year puts on a yeomanry uniform, and believes himself to be a soldier who has seen a great deal of service. The difference of opinion. between us is, ought or ought not we to undeceive these men? We believe that we ought to give things their right names, and to say out what we think and mean. In the words of Dr. Newman, we hold that the truest expedient is to answer right out what you are asked; the best prudence is

not to be a coward; the most damaging folly, to be found out shuffling; and the first of virtues is to tell the truth and shame the devil.' These are not days, nor is this a country, when milk-and-water writing will ever achieve any good. Unfortunately for the Catholic cause, we have already enough and to spare of the diluted précis style, which is misnamed leaderwriting, forced upon us from other channels for our sins every week. With all due respect to our friends who have found fault with us in respect to the Ritualistic question, we believe they will find us to be right before long. But in any case the cause of truth will not allow us to praise as warriors children whom we see playing with wooden guns and penny trumpets. We may praise their pretty toys, and believe that their game will keep them out of further mischief; but we cannot find it in our hearts to say they are soldiers, and are fit to go forth as the defenders of their country. And when all is said and done, what is Ritualism more than a few silly Protestants playing at being Catholics, and imagining themselves to be exactly that which they are not ?"

Thus, however high Ritualists reach, they are, in the eyes of Rome, as far off the grapes as the humblest sect of Christians in all Christendom. This state of feeling may be partially accounted for by the fact, that the Church of Rome herself has not been very largely augmented by the Catholic Revival of the past twenty-five years. Not that this movement has lacked development. Far from that, if the altar stairs of Anglican churches could lead directly to the Papal throne, then assuredly the Catholic Revivalists

stand on loftier altitude than they did ten or twenty years ago. The question is this whether, when they have attained the last step, there is not "a great gulf" between them and Rome?

This will be clearer when we remember that all Catholic Revivalists who become Romanists have to "go over," by certain definite processes, to that Church. They cannot by any means merge into it, as from the lesser to the greater; the difference is not one of degree, but of kind. They must have fresh orders, they must be penitents, they must crave admission as converts, and have some successor of Cardinal Pole, who absolved members of Parliament from heresy in olden times, to absolve them from heresy too. To all other difficulties this must be added, so far as "priests" are concerned. many Catholic Revivalists are married men; they cannot, by "conversion," become Romish priests; they are generally, be it noticed, the least developed Ritualists, and commonly rank rather with the ultra high churchmen than the Catholic Revivalists, as it is impossible to drag wife and children through any gate, however wide, which Rome might please . to open to a repentant Anglican Church! Poor men; marriage has certainly in this sense done for them.

But to turn to some special consideration of doctrines which at present are separating questions. I have touched one of these. In later times the old doctrine of the Infallibility of the Church has been transmuted into the Infallibility of the Pope. A very different thing that! showing us how the ground has shifted since the earlier days of Henry VIII. No œcumenical council is considered necessary or fitting now to decide theological

dogmas, or to settle the common faith! A Catholic Revivalist, if he wishes for union with Rome, must set aside his favourite appeals to councils, to patristic or tridentine fathers, and accept the Pope, only the Pope, and nothing but the Pope, as the divinely infallible voice. We can see that this is Dr. Pusey's great stumbling-block; he does not seem to object to the primacy of the Pope, but the infallibility! This makes all the past Catholic Revival movement a sham, and their present position an inglorious dissent.

Another subject which forms a barrier to union is involved in the Prayerbook articles, which some are seeking to set aside as Geneva after-thoughts, but which anyhow are there! Catholic Revivalists are now beginning to clamour for their removal as Anti-Catholic, but it is in the memory of most of us that but a few years ago, knowing they formed an integral part of the Anglican Church as constituted by law, they endeavoured to explain them away.

This is particularly the case with the doctrine of Justification by Faith. In the articles appended to King Edward's Prayer-book, in 1553, we read, "Justification by onely faith in Jesus Christ in that sence, as it is declared in the homelie of justification, is a most certain and holesome doctrine for Christian men." There need be no cavil we should think concerning Article xi. of the English Church. Not that we are made righteous, "but that we are accounted righteous before God, by the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith." Every student knows that the Council of Trent lays down a distinctly different doctrine of justification, and speaks of several causes, such as the final cause,

the efficient cause, the meritorious cause, the instrumental cause, the formal cause. The Romish doctrine contains the idea of an inner and antecedent righteousness, which doctrine is manifestly condemned by the English articles. It is a well-known fact that one of the ablest and acutest men of the day, who became a Romanist, I mean the celebrated Dr. Newman, made an earnest effort to reconcile these opposite theories; but every reader of his "Essay on Justification" must feel that, while as a casuist he is very clever, as a controversialist he has failed. This grand

Reformation doctrine of Justification by Faith is in the Prayer-book as clearly and distinctly as Orion is in the heavens; and, so long as it stands there, constitutes one of the strongest barriers against the re-union of England with Rome. I cannot say that I think the question of the number of sacraments so distinctly differences the Anglican from the Roman Church. In the Church Times there have recently appeared some remarks in favour of auricular confession, and an earnest pleading for it, not simply as beneficial, but as a sacrament of the Church. All earnest priests are called upon, moreover, to have confessional boxes put up in their churches at once, that the young may have the eye appealed to in favour of the idea. Now the doctrine of the English Church on this sacrament question concerning number is very vague, the homily reading thus: "If they should be considered according to the exact signification of a sacrament, namely, for the visible signs expressly commanded in the New Testament, whereunto is annexed the promise of free forgiveness of our sins, and of an

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