have issued should not only and barely be in accordance with the doctrines of the Church of England, but should speak her language, breathe her tone, and be conceived in a spirit of utter loyalty to her. For we believe that no compromise of any doctrine or tenet is required of the Church of England in dealing with foreign churches with a view to unity, and if such compromise were demanded, we are quite sure that it is the Church of England alone, and not any voluntary association within the Church of England, which could be authorized in proposing it, or in for a moment entertaining the question of proposing it. Our last publication was the Greek edition of Bishop Andrewes' Private Devotions,'—and this book is typical of the character of one class of our publications, while Bishop Cosin's treatise on the Religion, Rites, and Discipline of the Anglican Church,' represents others of our publications in which we lay down clearly and unfalteringly the position maintained by the Church of England in respect to dogma, discipline, and forms of worship. The total number of our publications on sale is now seventy.

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"The honourable office of circulating the authorized Latin and Greek versions of the Encyclic of the Lambeth Conference of 1867,-versions made by one whom we may be proud of as one of the first scholars of Europe, and also an eminent member of our Society-was assigned to us by his Grace the Primate. We resolved also at our Committee meeting in November last, that we would translate the Encyclic into the vernacular languages of most foreign nations, so admirable did this document appear to us as a manifestation both of the faith and the charity of the Anglican Church. We have accordingly circulated in the East the authorized Greek version of the Encyclic, together with his Grace's letter addressed to the Patriarchs of the Orthodox Church'; a letter for which we are glad to know that the respectful thanks, not of ourselves only, but of the whole of the clergy of the Province of Canterbury, have been returned to his Grace. And we either have circulated, or shall soon have circulated, Greek, Latin, and French copies of the Encyclic in France; Latin and Italian copies in Italy; Latin and Spanish copies in Spain; Swedish and Danish copies in Scandinavia; Bohemian in Bohemia, Armenian in Armenia, and English in Russia. If we had only been instrumental in the dissemination of the Encyclic Letter of our Spiritual Fathers, we believe that we should have done a work of not a little value towards setting the Church of England right in the eyes of Christendom.

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"Our living agency is confined to Italy, except so far as our corresponding secretaries, who are for the most part British chaplains, for us in different parts of the world. In Italy we have at present six agents, one near Bergamo, one near Milan, one near Turin, one in Florence, one in Naples, one in Palermo. We have also the advantage of the friendly co-operation of the Rev. W. C. Langdon, who represents the American Church in Italy. At Florence and at Naples we have opened, or assisted in opening, bookshops at which our publications are exposed for sale. This is an expense which we have ventured on for the first time this year. We have not yet been able to venture upon it, as

we wished to do, in Paris.

"In connexion with Spain, we have this year welcomed to England the

brother of Don Antonio Vallespinosa, curate to the Rev. Matthew Powley at Gibraltar. We have sent him for his education to the Mission House, Warminster, the Principal of which speaks of him very highly. We trust that he and his brother may be instruments in God's hands for the good of their countrymen-not only in Gibraltar, but throughout Spain. "Our income is between 1,2007. and 1,3007. a year. We hope it will next year be larger. Our sphere is so great, the interests with which we have to deal are so vast, the results may be so important to the Church of Christ, that we long very earnestly for means for carrying out our designs more fully and more perfectly.

"It is distinctly as members of the Church of England, and because we act upon her principles, that we appeal for aid. Our position continues to be the same as that which we have from the beginning occupied. We seek for peace and unity, but we will not sacrifice the truth-no, not an iota of it—because we may not and dare not-for the sake of peace. Others may offer to compromise the principles of the Church of England with the view of bringing about corporate reunion with Rome in her corruptions. We will not. Others may set up conventicles, and new Churches (were it possible) in foreign countries. We will not. We seek to aid the existing Churches to reform themselves after the model of the Church of England, with a view to their union with us after they have been reformed. Our principles are those of the Church of England. Our guiding spirit is that of loyalty to the Church of England. Our conviction is, that the principles of the Church of England, not because they are the principles of the Church of England, but because they are the principles of the primitive and uncorrupted Church, are the only basis on which unity can be restored to Christians. Herein consists our offence. But herein lies our strength. We invite the co-operation of all loyal members of the Anglican Communion, who view with deep sorrow the divided condition of the flock of Christ throughout the world, and believe that the best hope of future re-union will be found in drawing, each of us for ourselves, closer to our common Lord, in giving ourselves to much prayer and intercession, in the cultivation of a spirit of charity, and in seeking to diffuse through every part of the Christian community that desire and resolution to return to the faith and discipline of the Primitive' Church, which was the principle of the English Reformation."

The Bishop of OXFORD moved the following resolution :—

"That it is the duty of members of the Church of England to seek to diffuse through every part of the Christian community that desire and resolution to return to the faith and discipline of the Primitive Church which was the principle of the English Reformation."

My friend the Bishop of Ely has met thoroughly one great objection which has been taken to this Society-I mean, the assumption that it takes an aggressive and hostile form with regard to those communities of Christians with whom it does not altogether agree. I think no one that heard the speech of my right reverend brother, if he is capable of being affected by argument, can any longer feel any doubt upon that point; and I proceed, therefore, to notice the other great charge which is brought

against the Society-the charge of being actuated by a Pharisaic, selfsatisfied spirit-the charge of setting up the Church of England as a pure pattern of excellence, and of saying that the nearer other people approach to it the nearer they approach to goodness, the farther they recede from it the farther they recede from perfection. But this Society does nothing of the kind. It simply endeavours to circulate the great principles and truths which this Church of ours has received. Its language is this-There is a pattern in the Primitive Church, there is an exemplar set before us by those whom the Spirit in its fulness enlightened, and that is the pattern by which those in all succeeding time must aim at being like. For we deny the doctrine of developments being improvements. We maintain that that which the afflatus of the Divine Spirit gave to the Apostles of the Lord Jesus was a complete revelation. We say to those who would develop on the one side or on the other, by human intellect or by love of ceremonial, "The pattern has been set; the exemplar is before you; we know of no development and of no improvement.' What is the position

of the Pharisee? The Pharisee's position is an internal gaze of selfcongratulation—a gaze of admiration upon himself. The position of this Society is an external aspect pointing to the Church at home and pointing to those to whom she goes abroad, never with self-congratulation, but always with a loving aspiration. We do, with God's gracious favour, make a strong effort to assimilate ourselves to the primitive exemplar. God knows wherein we have failed; but there are multitudes whom we wish, in other respects, to be as we are-and that not in any spirit of inward self-congratulation, not with any internal gaze, or in any other attitude than one of devout admiration at the grace and goodness of God in giving us the means of reforming ourselves upon the primitive model. We seek to be more like that original pattern, and to get more like one another because we get more like it. Now that is not a Pharisaic temper or anything like it. For what is the Pharisaic temper? It is not even a proselytising temper. It is the temper which stands upon a pinnacle and looks down upon the wretched world beneath with a glance of contemptuous pity. It is the temper which says, "I am so satisfied with my own position that I am content to look down with infinite compassion upon the poor creatures I see beneath me." It is the temper which says, "Stand apart, for I am holier than thou "-not the temper which says, "Not us, but Him; not ours, but It; not our Church, but the Church of the Apostles' -not the temper which goes in deep humility at conscious failure and without a particle of scorn, and says to the world as the Apostles said in their day, "Come and see; we have found Him, the Messiah of man, let us make Him known to you. Let us help you even as we are trying to help ourselves, to get nearer to the one common object of our longing desire."

Therefore, your Grace, I think that so far from there being anything Pharisaic in such a resolution as this, it is the very opposite. We say that it is the duty of ourselves, and of all of us that know the blessing of belonging to the Christian Church, to endeavour to diffuse through every part of the community that desire and resolution to return to the faith and discipline of the Primitive Church which was the principle of

the English Reformation. Now it undoubtedly was the principle of the English Reformation not to try to make a new Church. No one would have listened to the very best men who should have proposed anything of the kind. The course taken by the Reformers was simply this. They said, "We can show you historically that this doctrine was not the doctrine of primitive times, and therefore must be wrong; whereas this other doctrine was the doctrine of those times which enjoyed the direct inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and therefore it must be right." Take the asserted supremacy of the Bishop of Rome. It was not because it was found to be an inconvenient and evil thing that it was opposed; but the Reformers argued that it was not primitive, that it was not apostolical, and that, therefore, it could not be according to the mind of Christ. The principle of the English Reformation was less the teaching of men in earnest for their own salvation because they were so in earnest, than it was a common endeavour to rise from what was old to what was older, and to return from medieval confusion to primitive order.

But there is another aspect of the Church of England. It has been held by great statesmen that in the comity of nations it was the business of England to hold the balance of power and to redress the aggressions of powerful States upon the weak. In the pursuit of that hereditary policy this country has thrust itself into many a quarrel, and has suffered the natural consequence in many a burnt finger and many a heavy load of debt. But there is a grander comity of Christian nations which does indeed bind together as brethren those who have but one God, and one Lord Jesus Christ. In that comity, let it be our special mission to exhort our brethren to return to our common home, and to seek our common Lord in the simplicity of His own Gospel. Let it be ours to strengthen our brethren in their desires for greater primitiveness in faith and doctrine, and so shall we indeed discharge the duty for which God has set us as a city upon a hill, the light of which cannot be hid.

Lord CHARLES A. HERVEY Seconded the motion, which was unanimously agreed to.

Archdeacon WORDSWORTH-The resolution which has been entrusted to me is as follows:

"That the present condition of Italy appears to this meeting to offer special reasons for helping the work of the Anglo-Continental Society in that country."

There is, you perceive, in this resolution, a special reference to the condition of Italy, and to our work in that particular country. Now when we speak of that country, my friends, we speak of a country to which we are under great obligations, not merely intellectual, but spiritual and religious. His Grace will perhaps allow me to observe that his presence here as president of this meeting is a memento of our obligations to Italy. I believe his Grace is the ninety-first Archbishop of Canterbury who has occupied that See. The first Archbishop was sent to us from Italy by perhaps the greatest, or at least one of the greatest men, that ever occupied the Pontifical chair. It was Gregory I., commonly called Gregory the Great, who sent Augustine to this country about the year 595. They who

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are familiar with Rome, the city in which St. Gregory lived, and from which St. Augustine came, will be reminded on the present occasion of that beautiful scene-that touching anecdote which is recorded of St. Gregory when he was induced to send Augustine, not to plant Christianity in this country for the first time (for there was a Christian Church in Britain even from Apostolic times), but to plant it in a particular part of it—in the kingdom of Kent. You are all familiar with the story. You may imagine that venerable man, Gregory the Great, going forth from that beautiful edifice, which is still standing on the Aventine Hill a little distance from the Colosseum, which was his native place, and on which a church was afterwards built or else going forth from that church in which he so often preached—that venerable church of St. Clement—and passing the Colosseum and entering the Roman forum. You know what he saw there. He saw fair-haired slaves from our own country. You remember what passed. He enquired whence they came, and he was told that they were Angles. Angeli forent si essent Christiani" ("they would be angels if they were Christians ") was his reply. Next he was told that they were Deirians, and he said that he would fain deliver them "De irâ Dei," from the wrath of God. Lastly, on hearing that they were subjects of King Ala, he said that they should sing Alleluias to the Eternal King. The result, as you well know, was the foundation of the Church at Canterbury. I believe that St. Gregory is sometimes represented with a dove floating in the air, and as it were balancing itself on the equipoise of its wings, in order that it might communicate something to him. This dove may represent the spirit of prophecy, communicating some revelation of the future. Well now, suppose that St. Gregory had had a vision of what took place in England in September last ; I mean the recent Episcopal Conference. Suppose he had seen the ninety-first Archbishop from the original foundation of that Church which he had commissioned St. Augustine to found at Canterbury, summoning Bishops from all parts of Christendom-suppose he had had a vision of seventy-six Bishops, occupying episcopal thrones in all parts of the English empire suppose he had seen Bishops assembled from Australia, and from the Antipodes, with which he was not much acquainted, aye, and from the Western world, of which he knew nothing--suppose that glorious vision had been vouchsafed to him, how would St. Gregory's heart have rejoiced! If he could only have foreseen that goodly assembly, and if he had foreseen likewise that it would publish the Encyclical Epistle, to which reference has been made in the admirable report read by your excellent Secretary, would he not have rejoiced that, in God's providence, he should have been instrumental in founding a Church from which should go forth to all parts of Christendom such an exhortation "to hold fast the canonical Scriptures as the sure Word of God," and to hold fast the pure Creeds of the ancient Catholic Church? Would he not have rejoiced if he had foreseen that from that Conference would go forth such an exhortation to missionary zeal, and such an encouragement "to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the Saints," and to remain faithful in communion with the mystical Body of Christ? If such a sight as that had been vouchsafed to his fatherly eyes, surely he would have said that his