he result. It was just what the Pharisee did. He examined himself, and he said, "I have done this-I have not done that. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. I am not like that Publican. I am not as other men are. They are very bad. I am better than they." The Pharisee was not justified in that self-examination. Neither will you be, if that be all you have to say. It will end in the sin of Pride (pp. 78, 9).

There is a smooth velvet lawn in your garden beautifully kept, carefully rolled, not a blade of grass displaced-soft, gentle, unruffled to the eye. And so it continues many days while the sun is warm and the weather dry; but of a sudden the rain descends. Forthwith out of it spring a thousand worms and filthy creeping things, which were all the while hidden beneath the surface, and your velvet lawn is for a moment marred and spoiled. Just so is your heart; apparently smooth, unruffled, undisturbed, without a defect. But self-examination descends into it, as the rain to refresh and to do it good ; and then a thousand miserable sins (like creeping worms) spring up and make themselves visible, and you are astonished at the foulness which lay beneath so fair an exterior" (p. 86).

Naturally, the consequence of self-examination is Confession, and it forms the subject of the sixth day's Sermon, which is a beautiful and eloquent one, pointing out in fervent language the dangers of those who endeavour to ignore their sins, and the blessed peace resulting from the benefits of absolution. In a Mission Sermon one naturally looks to private confession being prominently brought forward, and rightly so, though our Church has not laid down any rule which renders it of universal observance. The repentant soul having followed up self-examination by confession, strives for the future after holiness, and so The New Life forms a fitting subject for the next Sermon. The one which follows it, entitled The Call, is a very striking one, putting in most forcible language how really, while occupied most fully with this world's affairs, we may, if we heed not how we enter upon them, be really standing all the day idle.

There is labour, there is industry, there is an immense quantity of work done. We grant that, but still the question comes home just as close as ever, "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" Simply because it is all spent upon a different object from that which the Lord Jesus Christ says is the true object of every man's life-the Kingdom of Heaven.

Three things are apparent in this question, combined with the answer which I received in my several calls. One, that there is in man a very remarkable faculty-that of labour. The second, that in most cases he uses that faculty of labour upon a wrong object. The third, that in so doing he deprives himself of the highest part of his being, as a soul meant for immortality.

Under the title, The Answer, the reply of the labourers is considered, and the ignorance of men in general, that they have been hired to work for God, is pointed out. He then considers the work which has to be done, of bringing all to the knowledge and love of God. His remarks as to schools bear so directly on the present movement that we give a short

extract ::

And for the poor, look to your parish schools! Not Government schools, not secular-knowledge schools, with Conscience Clauses and other schemes, by which the Faith of Jesus shall be obliterated; but Church schools, schools under the teaching of the Parish Priest. Your work must be to help the Priest to gather in the little ones, and give them to him; to strengthen him by your co-operation, your sympathy, and your alms. Gather in the fish of all kinds out of the sea into the net, and when you have got them there, train them, not so much in secular training, though that of course in part, but spiritual learning, moral learning, that they may be instructed "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord;" and so, when grown up, may, "knowing the reason of the faith that is in them," be defended against the wiles of the devil, and become good, and substantial, and trustworthy, and steady

soldiers of Jesus Christ.

The final Sermon is a very solemn one, entitled Too Late. These Sermons, though, as we have shown, forming a course, and fitted admirably to follow each other, yet are each complete in themselves; so that in reading any one of them one is not left with the unpleasant sensation of having begun or ended in the middle of a subject. They are very remarkable Sermons, clear, practical, and forcible, very rich in illustration, without its leading, as is often the case, away from the subject under consideration. The volume is well bound, and the type good-altogether, we may safely say that those who buy it will not be disappointed.

Literary Notices.

Short Prayers for the Hours (Church Press Company), is one of those little works in paper covers with which the press teems. There is nothing original about it that we can see, but all such works are aids to devotion, and as such we welcome them.

We have far too long delayed noticing Part 2 of The Golden Gate, by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould (Hodges: London and Froome). It is an excellent continuation of the first part, which we commended to our readers some months ago. The Devotions it contains are suited to every variety of circumstance in which any individual may be placed. It only professes to be a compilation for the use of devout laity living in the world, but we heartily thank Mr. Baring-Gould for it, as an excellent and convenient book of devotions, which, when

derived from foreign sources, are rendered in thoroughly good English.

A thoroughly good Anglo-Catholic shilling magazine is still a desideratum. Perhaps, however, the best we possess is the interminable serial stories and articles which each number Monthly Packet. The great fault in this, is the number of contains. In the April part there are no less than six serials. We are getting tired of "Traditions of Tirol," much as we admire the people and the country, and shall be very glad when Part II. Chap. XIV.) receives his inheritance. Bertram, the heir of Pendyne" (a story which has reached The poetry in the April number is good, but the best paper it contains is one on Devotion in Art, by the Rev. G. C. Harris. It is eloquent, and interesting, and breathes a thoroughly Catholic spirit.

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The Banner. No. 1. April, 1870. (John Hodges, Bedfordstreet, London, and Froome.)-We advise all who are disgusted with the stupid dullness of the Parish Magazine-we fancy everyone is to get The Banner, which only wants support to make it what is desired for localising. This namber begins with "Sketches from Natural History," giving a description and picture of the buffalo. Mr. Mackeson contributes a paper on "Church Choirs," containing much sound and sensible advice as to their training, and the danger of irreverence arising if it is carried on in Church. Mr. Baring-Gould gives us an allegorical Hungarian story, entitled, "The Metal King;" then follows a tale called "The Corner Plantation," which is of a highly sensational character, evidently written by one who is quite ignorant of his subject, e.g., a man whose wife is ill, and he out of work, is represented as going out at night to shoot a rabbit. We beg the writer to consult a country friend. No sane rustic would attempt anything so impossible. Unfortunately, instead, he shoots- But we will not spoil the interest of the story, though the man is simply one of those mythical beings we hear so much of from antigame-law agitators. There is an interesting account of Leeds Parish Church, some notes on gardening, several short bits of poetry, and some miscellaneous reviews, scraps, &c. The price being a penny, and a great reduction offered to those who take it by the hundred to localise, we think it in every way worthy of attention.

We can confidently recommend Mr. Brown-Borthwick's

tune to Salve festa dies as being sweet, pleasing, and easily sung, it will be welcome to those who do not like, or do not choose, to use the Gregorian setting. It is published by Novello.

PERE FELIX AT NOTRE DAME.
(Continued.)

In his third Conference Père Felix treated "Of the existence of authority in the Church." The greater part of his Sermon was essentially Roman, and breathed a truly Ultramontane spirit. We shall not give any lengthened extracts from it this week. He said :

"There are three great facts which mutually sustain each other and form one single fact, the eminent fact of historical authority in the bosom of Christianity.

"There is the fact of Jesus Christ in person, creating authority in the Church, founded by His word.

"There is the fact of living tradition, that is, of the voice of all the doctors, proclaiming this authority invoked by their testimony. "There is the fact of the practice of the Church exercising in the light of centuries, the authority which she claims in humanity.

"These three facts, mutually uniting and strengthening each other, form an historical pedestal, for the authority of the Church, which nothing henceforth can shake, and before the threefold face of this fact, whence an invincible light shines forth, reason, under the penalty of braving history, and outraging good sense, is summoned to exclaim— "There is an authoritative Christianity in the world, or there is no Christianity at all."

These three facts formed the three heads of Père Felix's Conference. Speaking of "the dreamers of ideal religion, and of transcendental Christianity," he said—

"Instead of seeking in the history of Christianity, and in its primitive monuments that which is deposited in writings, acknowledged to be authentic by criticism itself, they imagine a creation of Christianity, formed entirely in the mould of their own philosophical thought and religious conception. Instead of asking themselves what Jesus Christ, God or Man, willed to make by laying upon the earth the foundations of this prodigious edifice, they prefer to enquire what they would have willed to make themselves in the place of this Christ, the Founder -and even after the accomplished fact-the history of the origin of Christianity, must be produced to be melted down in the crucible of their so-called religious criticism, in order that it may be formed according to their ideas conceived two thousand years after the fact; and little more indeed is wanting for them to make Jesus Christ a thinker of the nineteenth century of the Christian era, speaking religion as they speak it themselves, or as a Communist or Socialist would speak it at Paris in 1870."

At the close of the Conference Père Felix anathematised heretics of all ages, from Arius to Luther.

"Anathema, finally," he said, "to all the obstinate enemies, to all the public insulters, of the authority founded by Jesus Christ!

"Thus does the Church act in her immortal life; she marches over the shadow which errors endeavour to accumulate on her road, holding up with a firm hand the incorruptible light! She marches over all negations, placing before each, as it presents itself, her immutable affirmations, and opposing to all as they advance to meet her, her invincible phalanx. She marches onward, branding on the forehead every error which she condemns, with a stigma that time cannot efface, or striking them with a thunderbolt which leaves on the brow of all thus smitten, a sign similar to that which the Archangel Michael imprinted with his victorious hand, on the foreheads of the fallen angels. She marches onward, defining all dogmas, confounding all heresies, anathematising all schisms, excommunicating all apostacies, piercing to the heart with her Divine sword all Rationalisms; and in her attitude of Sovereign, with that calm, which is the majesty of her strength, and with that humble, though bold, assurance, which is the conviction of her right; she passes through all insurrections, all protestations and all human revolutions, without abdicating any of the privileges of her Divine authority, or of the prerogatives of her immortal royalty.

"In vain do errors agitate and passions rage, do men blaspheme and people conspire, against this claim to Divine authority; sovereignty in the Church, having its Pontiff-King at its head, ever affirms it, and affirms it, too, with a brilliancy which seems to disconcert her enemies, as much as it fills with joy, the hearts of her children. Her affirmation increases with negation, her boldness with her perils, her real power with her apparent weakness, and the manifestation of her Divinity with all the assaults and all the fury of humanity. Men discuss her; she says, 'I am.' They deny her; she says, 'Behold me.' They try to stop her; she passes by them. They wish to silence her; she speaks. They desire to enslave her; she commands. They outrage her, they insult her, they curse her; she smiles, she pardons, she blesses. All the Balaams of free thought are evoked by the age to proclaim her nothingness or to prophecy her death, and even to proclaim her already dead, and quite dead; e pur si muove, and she arises, she marches onward, she acts, she triumphs, and to morrow her triumph will be the salvation of her enemies.

"Say, if you dare, in face of the benefits accomplished by the Church in the bosom of Christian humanity, say that this Christianity, which has overthrown Paganism, and which has planted upon its ruins the grand tree of Christian civilization-this Christianity which has caused to flourish as its most magnificent branches, liberty, equality, fraternity and charity, these holy and sublime things, which modern intellect claims as its work with a pretension in which folly disputes with ingratitude; say that Christianity, the creator and preserver of everything good, pure, legitimate and salutary, which the modern world still bears in its bosom, was that independent, individual, and Latitudinarian Christianity which you dreamed of yesterday, that you might give to all the follies of innovation, the consecration of an august past. Ah! say that, if you will, and ask the contemporary press, that messenger of so many errors, that too faithful echo of so many lying voices, to repeat it to all the world— history to obey you will not recede; to give reason to systems two thousand years behind the age, she will not vanish nor transform herself according to your desires. She remains erect-behold her there!-erect in her past of nineteen centuries; still erect to-day, almost at the dawn of her twentieth century, and she cries to you "I am the true Christianity; I, the Church of Jesus Christ, I am nothing or I am authority; I am an invention-a purely human philosophy-or I am the authority of God in humanity."

"O magnificent spectacle! O unparalleled phenomenon! Authority is there, planted in history, forcing its roots into all the depths of humanity, and entwining them round all things to affirm, to fertilise, to protect everything. And here it is, still beneath our gaze, as ambitious as ever to command and govern souls. It is there, like the great tree, which bears everything, like the sap which nourishes everything, like the mainspring which moves everything, like the strength which raises everything, like the power which sustains everything, and Christianity itself with everything; for on the morrow of the day on which authority shall perish in Christianity, Christianity will be ruined, because with authority, it will have lost the reason of its existence, and the condition of its life."

Correspondence.

(The Editor is not responsible for the opinions of his Correspondents.) AN APPENDIX TO THE PRAYER BOOK. SIR,-Have any steps yet been taken for advocating the restoration of the 1st Liturgy of Edward VI. as an appendix to the present Prayer Book, for alternative use, or for regaining for the Church of England the anointing the sick with oil? Your remarks on these important points ought not to be fruitless. Yours, &c., OXONIENSIS.

THE ADORATION OF THE B.V.M. SIR,-Your correspondents last week quoted several Anglican authorities for honouring our Lady. Let me add Ant. Stafford's testimony in The Femall Glory. Of her Assumption, he says:-"By many of the Fathers, all of the Romish and some of the Reformed, it is held for undoubted truth. .' Bullinger saith, We doe believe that the wombe of the God-bearing Virgin and the Temple of the Holy Ghost, that is, her Sacred Body, to have been assumed into heaven."" Again, "Of one thing I will assure them (the Puritans),-till they are good Marians, they shall never be good Christians; while they derogate from the dignity of the Mother they cannot truly honour the Sonne." Uuder the illustration of the Assumption, he gives:

"What honour could to this great Queen be done,
More than be taken up to heaven high,

And there have God for Father, Spouse, and Sonne-
The Angels warde; the world stands wond'ring by."
Bishop Jolly says The highest honour that can be paid to a creature
Yours,
is due to her."
A MARIAN.

66

SIR,-Permit me to thank Mr. Brooks for his friendly and courteous reply to my unheaded letter to yourself. One ought hardly to dare to doubt such works as Ken and Scarson, were it not for the query, if she and the martyrs are already in heaven itself, what becomes of the one day of Judgment, which is to allot their final doom to all? Rev. xx., 12; 1 Cor. iv., 5; 2 Cor. v., 10. Probably I should be considered as straining a point too far in asking if it be not possible at least that both might have used the term heaven, rather in its popular than in its strict literal sense. Thus St. Paul speaks of departing and being with Christ (Phil. i, 23) and with the Lord (2 Cor., v. 5), and yet could hardly have meant in heaven itself (2 Tim., iv., 8), (Eccles. xii., 7).

And what says Bull? "The Church for some ages after the Apostles believed that the souls of the faithful in the state of separation, though they were in a happy condition in Paradise, yet are not in the third heaven, nor do enjoy the beatific vision till the resurrection. Nay this was a doctrine so generally received in the time of Justin Martyr that we learn from him that there were none but some profligate heretics that believed the souls of the faithful before the resurrection to be received into heaven itself.-(Vindi. of Ch. of E., London, 1719, pages 74-5).

I have very few books by me here, and send this off at once without

CHRISTIAN POLITICS. SIR,-In your review of Mr. Bartlett's Sermon on Christian Politics, you say the author is not clear in his definitions. This indistinctness arises from the almost universal neglect of the study of law.

The two primary laws are derived from the nature of man, and are not only the consequences of the end for which man was created, but also the ground of all duties and the foundation of all law.

Almighty God willed the society of man. Designing to unite all mankind in the possession of their common end, which is to constitute their happiness, he has made this last union to depend upon the good use of that first union which is to form their society. But man cannot live in society without law to keep every one within the order of his obligations. It follows that the obligatory force of law is derived from the will of God, and not from the consent of mun.

The four causes whereby God sustains society are Religion, Providence, the authority He gives to powers, and the light of reason.

The light of reason-the law engraven on the heart of man-points out to all mankind the rules of justice and equity as binding upon them by the will of God. The soul was given to man whereby he might know the rules of justice and equity, and not as so much salt to keep the flesh from rotting.

It follows that it is impossible to separate religion from politics, unless we leave out of the law whereby mankind is governed all consideration of the most excellent part of man, and of the end for which he was created.

To take another point in your review.

"D. Tit. (1), De Justitia et Jure (2).-Jus gentium est (the jus gentium of the civilians is nearly the same as the jus naturale of the Jurists) hoc solis hominibus inter se commune sit; veluti erga Deum

religio, ut parentibus et patria pareamus.” Here Pomponius lays down three heads of primary natural law-duty to God, to parents, and to country. But Cujacius, in commenting upon this passage, says that the institution patria is so necessary a part of human existence, that duty to country comes before filial duty.

What place then does Christianity hold in politics-to use the word politics in the sense quoted in your review? By showing man more clearly than the law of nature teaches, the end for which he was created, Christianity gives him a clearer knowledge of law which is the rule of his conduct; and his conduct is nothing else but the steps which he takes on the road to his end-the BEATIFIC VISION. Your obedient servant,

Little Cawthorpe, Louth, April 7, 1870.

AND THEN?

EDMUND HUFF.

SIR,-The substitution of lavender for black gloves at the funeral of a child in Essex, noticed in your last number, appears a movement in the right direction. The use of black at funerals, as denoting the deprivation of light and the termination of life, has always appeared abhorrent to the principles of our Faith which views life as the trial, and the grave the gate, through which we pass to heaven. Among the Heathen and the Jews, death was an unclean thing. The second Adam was made a quickening Spirit, and the grave has become sanctified by Christianity. While Christian symbolism appropriated black to the Prince of Darkness as expressive of wickedness, sin, and death, so in ancient pictures violet was worn by martyrs to typify passion, sorrow and suffering, and blue or sapphire to express hope in heaven-a symbol shared in by the practice in Turkey, where blue is used in mourning as an emblem of the happiness it is hoped the deceased enjoys in paradise. Surely in these days of infidelity the living faith that is in us should be denoted, rather than a custom be followed that is sanctioned alone by the practice of a dark age; and in following which we outwardly belie the hope we profess. Yours, &c., J. BURHAM SAFFORD.

THE ARCHBISHOPRIC OF SYROS.

SIR-I beg to enclose herein copy of a letter sent to the Editor of the Graphic by me on the 24th ultimo, for publication in his journal, and as it has not yet been published, I forward it to you, for insertion if you should think proper.

L. G. ZIFFO.

I remain, Sir, yours obediently, 11, Leinster-gardens, Hyde-park, London, April 9, 1870. TO THE EDITOR OF THE "GRAPHIC."

SIR,-Having read your article respecting the Archbishop of Syros, Tenos, &c., in your edition of the 19th inst., in which you state that you are in the dark concerning the number of Greek Christians that are in the Diocese of the Archbishopric of Syros, &c., I now beg to foryou correct information of the same, together with the total population of Syros, Tenos, &c., thinking that it will be acceptable to you, and at the same time requesting the favour of your inserting it in your next publication.

ward

The Island of Syros, before the Greek revolution, was inhabited by 5,000 people, almost all being of the Roman Catholic religion, and under the protection of France; but since the said revolution, many Greek refugees, particularly from the Island of Scio, assembled in Syros, for the French protection, and because it was a good port; and it has now become the central port of commerce in the Archipelago. Its population now consists of 35,000 people; 30,000 of whom are Orthodox, and the remainder, 5,000, are Roman Catholics.

The Island of Tenos contains a population of 30,000 people; of whom 26,000 are Orthodox, and 4,000 Roman Catholics.

The remaining six small islands, all under the same spiritual administration, contain 22,000 people, all Orthodox-so that you will perceive that the Archbishopric of Syros, &c., contains nearly 80,000 peopleall Orthodox; and therefore the Archbishop is not in partibus; also, there are 140 Priests, which form one of the largest and best Archbishoprics of Greece. I remain, &c., (Signed) L. G. ZIFFO.

London, March 24, 1870.

TWO ALTARS.

SIR,-In St. Mary's, Redcliffe, Bristol, a few years ago, there was an altar, unless my memory misleads me, in the Lady Chapel which was used occasionally. There was very recently a second altar in the Church of St. Cross, near Winchester. The Church of St. Mary and St. Radigund, at Whitwell, Isle of Wight, has two altars, but that is, I believe, a case of two Churches under one roof. There are also two in the Abbey Church, Malvern. In the Church News, Nos. 16, 20, 24, it is noted that Froome Selwood, has two stone altars, that St. Mary's, Bloxam, has one of wood and one of stone, and Tintagel, Cornwall, Gloucester Cathedral two each, Patricio, Brecknockshire, is named as having three. I hope next week to be able to collect some more instances Yours, A LAYMAN.

for Mr. Eliot and St. Chad's.

FAREWELL LETTER OF THE GREEK ARCHBISHOP. The following is a translation of a Greek letter which His Grace the Primate received a few days ago from Archbishop Lycurgus

To the Most Reverend Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England, Alexander, Archbishop of Syros, Tenos, and Melos, health and greeting in the Lord.

Now that the time for my departure to my own land has come, on the eve of leaving the Christ-loving and thrice-blessed land of England, in which I have met with brotherly reception and great honour from the august Prelates and other Clergy of the English Church, and from many eminent men, as well men in authority as private persons, and from the venerable Universities of this country-in which, moreover (and this is a privilege the most glorious and precious of all), I have enjoyed the honour of a personal interview and conversation with your most powerful and Christ-loving Queen, I feel that I owe a great, nay, a boundless, debt of gratitude for all the many kindnesses conferred upon me, feeling, as I do, that in my humble person honour has been paid to the whole orthodox Eastern Church, of which, by God's pleasure, I myself am a lowly minister. How, then, could I better display my feelings of gratitude for all I have experienced than by addressing your Grace, the chief Primate of the English Church, and my brother in Christ and honoured friend? For your Grace, on the moment of my arrival, not only honoured me with a letter and a welcome, but also commissioned the Rev. George Williams, a friend of the Greeks, and true to the Faith, to escort and befriend me. This gentleman constantly attended on me, and in every matter so readily gave me aid and entertained me, that I am deeply indebted to him for his unwearied attention, and have gained in him a truly excellent friend. Add to this that I was admitted to the presence of your Grace, and those moments I shall never forget, in which you received and embraced me as a brother in Christ.

Accept, therefore, Most Reverend Sir, the heartfelt expressions of gratitude which I offer to your Grace, and through your Grace to the Christ-loving Clergy over whom you preside. And with confidence and joy I add that not only I. but all the Holy Clergy and Christ-loving Laity in our land, among whom the news of the honour conferred upon me has already spread far and wide, are also full of gratitude, and they with just reason consider that these honours are paid to themselves.

All this contributes to draw tighter the bond of love, in which our Most Holy Ecumenical Patriarch so nobly and befittingly first united us, and which now through Divine grace has been strengthened by my visit to your thrice-glorious land.

We must needs be of one mind in Christ, and unite in arming ourselves to form a compact phalanx, strengthened by God, against those devices of the Evil One which in these days of ours make havoc of the Church, and array ourselves against them under Christ as our Leader, and withstand the torrent of materialism and strange doctrines opposed to God. For thus alone can the evil plots, which in our day have sprung up like tares in the pure harvest of the Lord, be repressed to the discomfiture of the plotters and to the glory of the Church of Christ, of which it has been promised, by the mouth of Him who cannot lie, "that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it."

I am now departing for Constantinople, and will there announce, both by word of mouth and by letter, to our Most Holy Ecumenical Patriarch