"Resist not evil." We say, "That is an | that the whole world of political relation unpractical, exaggerated doctrine; we should remain as untouched by the aims must pare down its meaning to some associated with Christianity as is the life much smaller, before we can make any of the men one reads of in Thucydides. use of it. M. Renan says this was the At times, indeed, it appears as if this aim teaching that put an end to slavery. A were to be realized in our day. We do pagan hero refused to be "butchered to not believe it can be realized in any day. make a Roman holiday," fired his op- But what we may say decidedly is that it pressed brethren with the passion for will be something new in the world if it liberty, and taught slaves to die in the ever does come to pass that Christianity strength of that passion. We cannot say gives no color to political life. History that the genius and courage which it shows us an endless complexity of alli taxed the utmost strength of Rome to ance between Christian feeling and that subdue did anything towards ending sla. against which Christian feeling should be very. The quelled revolt of Spartacus a perpetual struggle; but the modern idea riveted the chains of his brethren, sharp- of private life regulated by one code, and ened the scourge under which they public by another, this, whatever else groaned, and hardened against them the there is to be said for it, is not a concep heart of the most humane of the Romans. tion that can be illustrated from the life Then came a faith which appealed with of the past. History may help us to unspecial promise to the slave, which offered derstand how it arose. The Church was duties he could fulfil and rights that he born in an age when civil virtue was as could claim; he accepted it, he believed impossible as to an individual is filial the words of Christ literally, he feared piety in old age. It became the rival, not not them which could kill the body, and the ally, of a life which was younger than after that had no more they could do; he itself. A national life grew up beneath accepted death and torture at their hands its shelter, and was not easily recognized with unresisting hope, and when the storm as its equal. Yet it is the most theologi. of persecution was past slavery had be- cal of all poets, and the one in whom the come impossible. Slaves had taught free-spirit of the Middle Ages is most com. men how to die, they were enrolled among the saints, and it was impossible that humanity could continue to recognize a distinction which was thrown into the shade as much by common memories as by common hopes. We do not say that this is the way all historians would narrate the facts, but certainly the one from whom we have taken this view is not a prejudiced advocate of Christianity.

The records of history might be made to yield very different answers to our question, no doubt. The worst crimes it commemorates have been committed in the service of something that the criminals sincerely believed to be Christianity, and it is no unnatural inference to conclude that its teachings were not intended to be applied to the region where they were capable of so hideous a distortion. At times every Christian student of history must have felt an enormous relief in turning from modern to ancient history, and escaping from the atmosphere of something which calls itself by the name of his faith, but which must have seemed to him more nearly a complete antithesis to everything to which his faith bears witness than any kind of belief and feeling that was in the world before it exist ed. And then, of course, it is easy to go on to the wish that men should live politically as they did live before it existed,

From

pletely expressed, who gives a most em-
phatic sanction to the belief that these
powers are equals. No ideal of life is
more political than Dante's. The em-
peror and the pope are correlative author-
ities, performing functions equally sacred,
alike agents in giving Christendom a unity
which in this mediæval ideal it was to
possess in a much higher degree than our
modern thinkers dare to dream of.
this point of view, the modern condition
of a congeries of States struggling through
some vague conceptions of international
law to attain a certain approximation to
the organic unity which was, according to
the earlier view, to be something coherent
and definite, would appear an enormous
retrogression, a process the very reverse
of evolution. It may be said that this
ideal was never realized; nevertheless, it
remains an important fact that it existed.
The religious conception of European
civilization was a far more organic thing
than is that of our secular age. And
whether or not any one can hope for the
return of any similar ideal, whether or
not we may believe that faith shall ever
again be a bond of national union, we
must surely allow that in this function it
has no obvious rival; and that the unity
of Christendom, if it is not to be achieved
by Christian faith, seems likely, from all
we can see, to remain a mere dream.

For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage.

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Single Numbers of THE LIVING AGE, 18 cents.

PESSIMISM.

Is life worth living? Well, to tell you true,
It scarcely is, if all men were like you.
BRIGHT-FACED maiden, bright-souled maiden,
What is this that I must hear?
Is thy heart with sorrow laden,

Is thine eye dimmed with a tear?
Can it be that lips so sweetly

Rounded to be kindly kissed,
Could be twisted indiscreetly

To that vile word Pessimist?
Not for thine own ills thou weepest;
Softly feathered is thy nest;
When thou wakest, when thou sleepest,
Thou art fortuned with the best.
But thy sisters and thy brothers

Pierced with many a wotul smart,
Dying children, wailing mothers,
Fret thy nerve, and stab thy heart.
In the country, in the city,

Godless deeds, a loveless list Stir thy blood and move thy pity, And thou art a PESSIMIST. Storms and wars and tribulations, Fevered passions' reinless tide, With insane hallucinations

Mingled travel far and wide.. Can it be an Eye inspecting Things so tumbling in pell-mell, With a cool control directing

Such a hotbed, such a hell?

Nay, sweet maid, but think more slowly;
Though this thing and that be sad,
'Tis a logic most unholy

That the gross of things is bad; 'Tis a trick of melancholy,

Tainting life with death's alloy;
Or in wisdom, or in folly,

Nature still delights in joy.
Dost thou hear of starving sinners?
Nine and ten or ninety-nine,
Many thousands eat good dinners,

Many hundreds quaff good wine.
Hast thou seen a score of cripples?
Equal legs are not uncommon ;
If you know one fool that tipples,
Thousands drink not -man and woman;
Tell me, if you know, how many
Murders happen in the town?
One a year, perhaps, if any;

Should that weigh your heart quite down?
No doubt, if you read the papers,

You will find a strange hotch-potch,· Doting dreams, delirious capers,

Many a blunder, blot, and blotch; Bags of windy speculation,

Babblement of small and great, Cheating, swindling, peculation,

Squabblement of Church and State;
Miners blown up, humbugs shown up,
Beaten wives, insulted brides,
Raving preachers, witless teachers,
Lunatics and suicides.

Drains and cesspools, faintings, fevers,
Poisoned cats and stolen collies,
Simple women, gay deceivers,
Every sort and size of follies,

Wandering M.P.'s brainless babble,

Deputations, meetings, dinners,

Riots of the lawless rabble,

Purple sins of West-End sinners;
Driving, dicing, drinking, dancing,
Bubble schemes, and daft financing,
Spirit-rapping, ghostly stuff,

When the shares are blown enough.
All this is true; when men cut capers
That make the people talk or stare,
To-morrow, when you ope the papers,

You're sure to find your antics there.
But you and I and all our neighbors,
Meanwhile in pure and peaceful ways,
With link on link of fruitful labors,

Draw out our chain of happy days.
See things as they are; be sober;
Balance well life's loss and gain:
If to-day be chill October,

Summer suns will come again.
Are bleak winds forever sighing?

Do dark clouds forever lower?
Are your friends all dead and dying?

All your sweetness turned to sour?

Great men no doubt have sometimes small

ways,

But a horse is not an ass,

And a black snake is not always
Lurking in the soft green grass.
Don't be hasty, gentle lady;

In this whirl of diverse things
Keep your footing, and with steady
Poise control your equal wings.
All things can't to all be pleasant,
I love bitter, you love sweet;
Some faint when a cat is present,
Rats find babies' cheeks a treat.
If all tiny things were tall things,
If all petty things were grand,
Where would greatness be, when all things
On one common level stand?
Do you think the wingèd breezes
Fraught with healthy ventilation,
When a tender infant sneezes

Should retreat with trepidation?
When dry Earth to Heaven is calling
For soft rain and freshening dew,
Shall the rain refrain from falling
Lest my lady wet her shoe?
Fools still rush to rash conclusions,
And the mole-eyed minion man
Talks of troubles and confusions,

When he sees not half the plan.
Spare to blame and fear to cavil,
With short leave dismiss your pain,
Let no fretful fancies revel

In the sanctum of your brain.
Use no magnifying glasses

To change molehills into mountains,
Nor on every ill that passes

Pour hot tears from bitter fountains.
Trust in God and know your duty,

Some good things are in your power;
Every day will bring its booty

From the labor of the hour.
Never reck what fools are prating,

Work and wait, let sorrow lie;
Live and love; have done with hating,
Goethe says-and so say I.

Blackwood's Magazine.

J. S. B.

From The Quarterly Review. THE ENGLISH CHURCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

their appearance. This ignorance as to the conditions of religious life in the eighteenth century is in a great measure excusable. Until very recently no attempt had even been made to narrate the history of the Church of England during this period. Historians were content to write the history of the Reformation, or at any rate to break off their narrative at the Revolution, leaving all between that date and modern days a blank. But that there is very much to tell of the religious

IN spite of the numerous books which have been written to illustrate its history, political, social, and intellectual; in spite also of its nearness to ourselves; it is perhaps true that the eighteenth century is less known to us than either of those immediately preceding it. There is no Revolution, Rebellion, or Reformation, to compel attention by the greatness of the issues involved. There are but few strik-life of England in that century, recent ing and commanding characters - but few incidents of absorbing interest. In short, there are wanting in the eighteenth century the elements of the romantic and the picturesque. Hence the view taken of that period is, for the most part, rapid and superficial. It is looked upon as a feeble duplicate of our own times, with the advantage all in favor of ourselves. Its literature is but little read. Its school of poetry has fallen into disrepute. Its essays are voted dry and jejune. Its architectural efforts are viewed with a shudder. Its philosophy is regarded as incipient and undeveloped.

But in no respect, perhaps, has the eighteenth century been so superficially and hastily judged as in the matter of religion, and in the estimate of the amount of earnestness to be found in the Church and the sects. The caricature types of Fielding and the novelists have furnished the ideas prevalent as to the social status of the clergy. Some stray volumes of dry sermons have suggested the estimate of pulpit oratory; and, for the rest, exag. gerated and untruthful stories as to the Wesleys and the Revivalists have created the notion, that practical religion was scarcely to be found in the land before

1. The English Church in the Eighteenth Century. By Charles J. Abbey, M.A., Rector of Checkenden, late Fellow of University College, Oxford; and

John H. Overton, M.A., Vicar of Legbourne, late
Scholar of Lincoln College, Oxford. 2 vols. London,

1878.

2. William Law: Nonjuror and Mystic. By John H. Overton. M.A. London, 1881.

3. The Student's English Church History. From the Accession of Henry VIII. to the Silencing of Convocation in the XVIIIth Century. By G. G. Perry, M.A., Canon of Lincoln and Rector of Waddington.

Second edition. London, 1880.

writers have abundantly shown. The volumes which represent the joint labors of Messrs. Abbey and Overton are a welcome and valuable contribution towards the history of the period. They do not, indeed, in themselves constitute a history. The essay form into which they are cast involves gaps and omissions in the narrative, while it often produces repetition and undue prolixity. We cannot think the form of the book judicious. But the essays are ably written, and replete with valuable information. Still higher praise may be given to Mr. Overton's "Life of William Law." This is an admirable biography up to the period when the subject of it gets lost in a cloud of mysticism, into which the writer is unfortunately tempted to follow him. Aided by these helps, and by others which it is not necessary to particularize, we propose now to attempt to indicate some of the chief points of interest in the religious life of England during the eighteenth century.

The century opens in a storm. Convocation, silenced since the Revolution, had at last met. A controversy had been raised as to its right to meet concurrently with the Parliament, and the clergy had become so excited, that King William's last ministry made it a condition of their taking office that it should be allowed to meet and deliberate. Its deliberations consisted in a series of squabbles and recriminations between the Upper and Lower Houses. The bishops were Whigs, the presbyters were Tories. Atterbury, whose book had been the chief exciting cause of the movement, was the ruling spirit in the Lower House, and was never tired of thwarting and decrying the House

of Bishops. Throughout the whole of the | wtth different habits, tastes, principles. succeeding reign the bitterness between And if the clergy of the eighteenth cen. the two Houses prevailed. An enquiry into the cause of this may furnish us with a clue to many false notions which have prevailed as to the English Church at this period.

flocks; men indeed often of the type of the rector sketched by George Eliot, "who had no lofty aims, no theological enthusiasm "-content to give practical lessons on the duties of life - but men also in many cases with much of earnestness and spiritual-mindedness. The preservation of these good qualities among the lower clergy, qualities which were conspicuously absent in some of the most prominent of their order, was in a great measure due to the religious societies, which were established at the end of the seventeenth century, and which gradually extended their organization through the land. The history of these societies has never been adequately written, and their importance has been greatly overlooked. When the subject is fully investigated, it will be found that not only were these organizations the means of preserving spir. itual religion in the land, but that the revival movement of the Wesleys was entirely founded on them, and would not

tury are not to be judged fairly by the bishops, neither is their character and value to be estimated by the controver sialists. It was indeed a controversial age, and a large number of clergy took At the Revolution it is unquestionable part in the various controversies which that the hearts of the great majority of were rife, displaying no inconsiderable the clergy were with the expelled king. amount of learning in their writings. But A momentary exasperation against him the great mass of the clergy were not had prevailed among them due to his controversialists. They were living quiet, tyranny and proselytizing - but this was unobtrusive lives in the midst of their not enough to induce them to accept the principle of a change of dynasty. They would have acquiesced in a regency, but they would not go further. Hence the same bishops who went to the Tower became nonjurors. The four hundred clergy who refused to take the oaths to King William were not a tithe of those who disliked his accession. They were simply the men who had the courage of their opinions; but the great mass of clergy, holding the same opinions, remained grumbling and discontented on their cures. They were Tories and Jacobites in heart, and the measures taken by William's government did not tend to make them less so. For it was the policy of William's government to select carefully for bishops men who were known to be thoroughly Whig and upholders of the Revolution. This was done after Queen Mary's death by a committee of Whig bishops appointed for this purpose, among whom Burnet was the ruling spirit. Tory presbyters, however distinguished for have been possible but for their co-operalearning or devotion, knew well that promotion was absolutely impossible for them. Thus the bishops became, as it were, a class hostile to the clergy, and hence when bishops and presbyters met face to face came the explosions of ill-will and bitterness. It follows from this, that it is utterly unfair to judge the clergy of that day by the bishops which, it is believed, is what is ordinarily done. The bishops were courtiers, fine gentlemen, of liberal and latitudinarian views. They were to be seen at St. James's, or at "the Bath," or occasionally in a stately procession through their dioceses. The clergy were altogether of a different class

tion. We look in vain in Messrs. Abbey and Overton's volumes for any account of these societies. We must endeavor to supply the omission from other sources.

It was in the year 1678, when the most appalling profligacy was rife, that certain young men who had been impressed by the sermons of Dr. Anthony Horneck, Mr. Smithies, and Dr. Beveridge, formed themselves into an association or guild for religious purposes. They had weekly meetings for prayer, singing hymns, and religious conference. They gave alms for the poor on a fixed ratio, undertook to attend daily service at the church, and the holy communion weekly and on all