priests of the Roman faith living together and working for the evangelization of their heathen kinsmen.1

One or two remarks may be ventured in conclusion :-
:-

First. The Anglican Church in its several branches has a mode of working which, although it may be slow and at times crude, is nevertheless, as the above facts show, characterised by good sense, is practical in nature, and proves, by result, to be effective. It may well be doubted, since it has done a work which neither Romanism nor Sectism has done for the negro, whether its mode of operation, that is, in its essential features, should be revolutionized. Somewhat of its tardiness, its occasional blindness of opportunity, its want of quick, skilful policy, its lack of farseeing sagacity, should be got rid of as soon as possible. The Church needs, to use the language of the Reviewer referred to above, to" abound more in faith, in zeal, in unity, in organization, in native clergy." But her system, as such, may challenge comparison with that of any other in the world. By her fruits, judge her.

Second. Churchmen, living in a Church which repudiates infallibility, should, without doubt, recognise at all times that this present state is one of imperfection, and hence should be zealous in all things for their Church to throw off " weights," defectiveness, mere formal routine, or unmeaning vogue, which after a time clog the work of all great institutions. This duty, however, should not blind them to the fact that the Holy Ghost is an abiding presence in our Church; that He is graciously pleased to give a constant blessing to her labours in all places; that He is witnessing everywhere on earth to her heavenly origin, and is gloriously preparing her for nobler triumphs in the future.

W. A.

LETTER FROM NATAL.

(From our Natal Correspondent.)

OUR new church, the standing protest against Colensoism and infidelity, is at length opened. Five months have only just elapsed since the judgment was pronounced which deprived us of our former buildings, and the new one, which, as far as its interior is concerned, is by much the most churchlylooking in the Colony, and is capable of seating 380 in the nave, has already been in use for three weeks. The church is 84 feet by 39 feet inside; the chancel occupying 20 feet of its length. It was solemnly opened on Ascension-Day, on which occasion, although a working-day in the city, it was filled to the doors. The clergy present were Archdeacon Fearne, the Revs. F. S. Robinson (the Dean's locum tenens), C. Maber, J. Walton, T. Taylor, J. F. N. Rolfe, and E. W. Jacob. The Archdeacon preached, and more than ninety persons joined in receiving Holy Communion. The opening services were continued over Friday, Saturday, and the following Sunday, special sermons being preached on each occasion. Altogether Ascension-tide, 1868, will long be remembered by the faithful in Natal.

1 [We hope, for the credit of our common Christianity, that these statements to the discredit of Roman Negro Missions are exaggerated.-Ed. C.C.C.]

A further attempt to crush the Church has been made. In 1864 a sum of 1307., being the proceeds of an oratorio given by the cathedral choir, was placed by that choir at the disposal of the vestry, and by that body lodged in the Natal bank, to form a nucleus for a fund to enlarge the Cathedral Church of St. Peter, at that time far too small for its congregation. Some months after, long before Dr. Colenso returned to Natal, this object was slightly altered by resolution of the vestry, and it was determined that the fund should be appropriated to the object of providing increased church accommodation, no longer tying it down to one particular building. This money was afterwards increased by donations from various quarters to 275l. The whole of it is now claimed by Dr. Colenso as trustee of the cathedral, although the appeal in this question is yet undecided. Relying, however, on the court here to grant anything, an application was recently made by Dr. Colenso, for an order compelling the trustees of this fund to pay it in. A rule nisi was granted, returnable on the 30th of May, on which day the court, after hearing both sides, refused to make the rule absolute. The Colensoites thus disappointed held a vestry-meeting a few days after to consider what further steps should be taken; but being unable to agree upon any line of action, they adjourned the meeting till Tuesday next (to-morrow), when I suppose some course will be decided upon. As they have failed to obtain the summary order, they will now probably await the decision of the appeal before taking any further steps.

Maritzburg, June 8.

THE VIA MEDIA REFORMERS IN ITALY.

that

IN the Emancipatore Cattolico the Rev. Dr. Prota notices "the Eco della Verità, a well-meaning organ of the Evangelical' confession, which we have always respected, as we respect and maintain freedom of conscience for all, has said:-Cardinal d'Andrea, that giant of the Neo-Catholicism, that idol of the two Neo-Catholic papers, the Esaminatore of Florence and the Emancipatore of Naples, finished his theological career by a retractation which condemned his friends and rendered him ridiculous to all.'-In reply, we would say that we never idolized Cardinal d'Andrea, but that we saw in him the sufferer from tyranny, the Bishop despoiled of his rights by a Pope-king, one whom our contemporary has itself described as a man of remarkable learning, unimpeachable probity, and personal piety.' His retractation was forced and dictated, while he was confined at Rome, nominally in a convent, but really in a prison. As for the title. NeoCatholic,' those whose opinions we represent repudiate it; we know not what a Neo-Catholicity can mean. But we have ever insisted, and trust we always shall insist, on the necessity of a return to the Primitive old Catholicity;-to that apostolic Catholicity, in which the chief among the ministers of the sanctuary was the servant of all, in which there was no other primacy in the sacerdotal order but that of virtue, sacrifice, martyrdom; to that Catholicity which, without confounding and levelling

6

to a nominal equality the threefold hierarchy of the Church-which we hold to be of Divine institution-kept inviolate the bounds of the ministerial authority within legitimate limits, and harmonized in an embrace of true peace the reasonable service' and the indefeasible authority of the truths of revelation; in short, to that Catholicism which boasts among its fathers and doctors a Clement, a Cyprian, an Ambrose, an Augustine, a Leo I., a Gregory the Great;-and not to that which believes in the infallibility of a Pius IX., in the dogmas of the Syllabus, in the theology of a Perrone. These and no others are our principles, for the realization of which we have sacrificed everything, and are ready moreover to sacrifice our life. And let our contemporary rest assured that for attaining the moral and sacred aim we purpose, we have sought no other support and encouragement than that of our conscience; though, as we have never pretended to an exclusivism in our religious dogmas, because we are not a sect, so have we never repelled the sympathy and the friendship of all those who have in common with us aspirations for the realization of a Catholic Reform of the Italian Church. For us, the word reform is not a contradiction, as it is for others, who elevate the power of theological and disciplinary theorems to the immutable and indiscussible axiomatic authority of the revealed dogmas. The philosophic genesis of the word reform applied to religious credences, indicates modification or change of form, but not of substance."

THE CRETAN REFUGEES AND AMERICAN MISSION.

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THE Rev. Dr. Hill has accompanied with the following "Statement appeal to American Churchmen for aid towards the efforts of his Mission at Athens on behalf of the Cretans :

"The first company of Cretan refugees arrived at the Piræus in August, 1866, in number about 2,000. They were immediately cared for by the community of Athens, and others, so far as their bodily wants required.

"Our schools were opened after the summer holidays on the 1st of September, and in the course of a week or two we had already gathered under our Mission-school roof more than 100 young women and female children, and some 20 lads and small boys. The women and girls were, without exception, wholly ignorant. They were all furnished with decent clothing, and the means of acquiring knowledge, and in the course of that winter, and the spring and summer of 1867, they continued to flock to our schools as new accessions to the number of refugees arrived. For several months previous to my leaving Athens on my present furlough, the average number of Cretans of both sexes in regular attendance in our schools was 360. Instruction is afforded them daily, and it was continued during the whole of last summer-which would otherwise have been devoted to relaxation-requiring great self-denial on the part of all, and imposing great fatigue of body and mind upon those who had the responsibility of superintending this work.

"No effort of the kind was made in any quarter for more than eight months after we had set on foot these extra labours.

"In September last, Mrs. Hill originated another project, which has been wonderfully successful, and obtained for her the thanks of the general Government, and of the community in Athens. It has been the means of greatly ameliorating the condition of these unfortunate beings. Knowing that the Cretan women are skilful in weaving fabrics of silk especially, as well as cotton and wool, she set on foot an inquiry among those under our immediate care, and finding among them not a few who could weave, she commenced an industrial enterprise, the success of which has been the admiration of all who have visited our schools. Four large looms were purchased and the apparatus for them. These were set up in our large schoolhouse (in the ancient Agora). They are in constant operation, giving employment to numbers of poor industrious women and girls. We purchase the raw material, silk, cotton, and wool, and they prepare every thing, and manufacture most beautiful and useful articles, which are sold for their benefit. Others are employed in knitting stockings, in spinning, in making up garments for other poor refugees; and our dwelling house is besieged by applications for work, which very often unfortunately we have not the means of giving.

"Besides all these operations there are several hundred under our immediate supervision, and for whom we have to provide. A systematic plan has been organized by Mrs. Hill, by which every family is regularly visited, their wants ascertained and supplied, and religious instruction afforded them by Miss Muir (Assistant Missionary) and Mrs. Hill's niece, Miss Masson, at their own places of abode. (They are provided by the Government with comfortable tenements in and about the city.) They have made wonderful progress in reading, and other elementary education, of which they were, without exception, wholly ignorant. And when in the ordering of Divine providence they shall be restored to their country, they will carry with them learning enough to be able to teach others, and a knowledge of the holy Scriptures sufficient, through Divine grace, to make them wise unto salvation.'

"For all these works of charity we have been obliged to depend upon the bounty of a few benevolent travellers, whose precarious contributions of course do not amount to much. We have also received some aid from the Anglo-Greek Committee (no longer in existence), and from the officers and seamen of one of our American ships of war.'

NEWSPAPERS FOR MISSIONARIES.

SIR, -A newspaper when read would often be acceptable if sent to a Missionary at a remote station. Can you tell me how to address such to Labrador, the Magdalen Isles, &c.?

T. KIRK.

[Letters for Labrador should be simply addressed "Labrador," any addition being embarrassing, from the fact that mails proceed both via Newfoundland and via Canada. For the Magdalen Islands add "North America."-Ed. C.C.C.]

Reviews and Notices.

Exposition de la Doctrine de l'Eglise Catholique Orthodoxe; accompagnée des différences qui se rencontrent dans les autres Eglises Chrétiennes. Par W. GUETTÉE, Prêtre, et Docteur en Théologie de l'Eglise Orthodoxe de Russie. Paris Libr. de l'Union Chrétienne. Londres :

Lib. Barthès et Lowel. 1866.

THIS Concise little manual, of 500 pages 32mo, may be had for three and a half francs. The author, contrary to most Roman writers, distinguishes the Anglican from "Protestant" Churches, "because its basis is wholly different, admitting not only ordination as the means by which the priesthood is transmitted, but the three orders, as forming the essential hierarchy of the Church." The doctrine of the Anglican Church approaches nearer to that of the Orthodox, he says, than does that of Rome: but, to make the agreement complete, the Anglican Church ought to "reconcile the different elements found in her official acts and offices," and, moreover, to declare, (1)—"That there exists a Divine oral teaching transmitted by the Apostles (2)-That this oral teaching has been transmitted infallibly by the Church; (3)—That it can be proved by the constant and universal testimony of the Apostolic Churches, i.e. of those Churches which have remained immoveable since the first centuries in the doctrine which they have received." The Abbé professes to take our doctrine from the Prayer-book and the Thirty-Nine Articles, giving to the latter the most "Orthodox" interpretation they admit, because his object is to "lessen as much as possible the obstacles which exist to a complete union between the Anglican and the Greek Churches."

Although so friendly in disposition to the Anglican Church, Dr. Guettée views Christendom thus:- "There are now in the world three principal Churches of Apostolic origin,-the Greek, the Latin, the Armenian." The last, he explains, is only externally severed from the rest of the "Orthodox" through a misunderstanding about the Council of Chalcedon.

With regard to the Holy Eucharist, he praises the Scottish Liturgy for its Invocation; but he asserts that, although the word Transubstantiation is not admitted by the "Orthodox" Church, her doctrine is the same as Rome's. He condemns "the error of co-existence, held, apparently, by the Anglican Church in common with the Lutherans,' and asserts that "to admit the reality of Christ in the Eucharist ought logically to exclude thence the reality of the bread and wine." We had hoped that the author, since his secession from Rome, had unlearned this quasi Eutychianism.

On the other hand, Dr. Guettée not only recognises the validity of our Baptism and Orders, but approves our Articles on Justification. With respect, moreover, to the teaching on this topic of the "Protestant Churches," he tells us :- "Exaggerated propositions are to be met with in some Protestant divines touching Justification by faith without