sheds for their worship. Yet they could pray at least as well as we can in the finest cathedrals."

"They had the very best they could possibly procure," said the Rector, "and they knew it. Why do not we carry out the same principle, and give to God the very best we can procure ? This is all I ask. But we give the very worst, and we know and feel all the time that it is the very worst; and herein lies the difference between the two cases."

"But do you not think so much of cold ceremony and external form is incompatible with true spiritual piety?" asked Mrs. Merton.

"That is a conclusion," answered the Rector, "which cannot logically be drawn indeed there is no conceivable reason why both should not exist together. On the contrary, the one will spring out of the other-if by 'cold ceremony' you mean the decencies of Christian worship. If there were more of 'true spiritual piety' you would probably see a great deal more of such decencies than we now possess. Beautiful churches, I grant, will not alone produce religion; it is religion which must produce beautiful churches. If the alternative were ceremony or vital religion, no one could hesitate which to choose. The saying of the saintly Wulstan, Bishop of Worcester at the time of the Conquest, is much to the point. He feared that the one was giving way to the other, and well

K

remarked that the good old time was, when men knew not how to build magnificent piles, but thought any roof good enough, if under it they could offer themselves a willing sacrifice to God. It is a miserable change if we neglect the souls of men and pile together stones.'

"I am glad," said Mrs. Merton, "you admit so much. I have heard the high-church Oxford clergymen are trying to restore all the formality and strict observances of Popery in the churches under their care; and I rather fear Mr. Francis has some such design at Letherton."

"I faithfully promise you," said he, “that, as far as I have any voice in the restoration, not one ornament shall appear which was condemned by the Reformers, or is forbidden by our rubric and canons."

"But why," asked Mrs. Merton, “should you set up your crosses and altars to offend conscientious people who dislike such things?"

"Of conscientious dislike to the holy cross," said Francis, “I have heard a good deal, but believe very little. At least I can neither understand nor sympathize with the religion of such persons. No true Christian can be scandalized at the emblem of his redemption; no one can turn away from it in anger or contempt, without turning from that which he feels to be none of his."

"But," said Mrs. Merton, you at once intro

duce images to worship and adore, and bring in all sorts of novelties which have long ago been condemned as vain superstitions by the more pure and enlightened piety of modern times. I am sure I cannot bear to see the clergy bowing and even crossing themselves, and turning to the east, and preaching in their surplices."

"Perhaps," said Francis, "you confound the cross with the crucifix. And for the latter, it is very inconsistent to reject sculptures and retain paintings of the Crucifixion, which we so often see as altar-pieces in churches. For my own part, I can see nothing objectionable in either; nor do I think the Reformers were justified in destroying the great Roods or wooden crucifixes which formerly stood under the chancel arch of every church."

"A proof," said Mrs. Merton, " that fine architecture and beautiful sculptures have no effect in producing devotion, may be drawn from our Cathedral churches. These are the finest places of worship we have, but still fewer worshipers frequent them than may often be seen in the humblest church. I am sure a good preacher might ensure a better congregation in a barn than all the music and grandeur of Cathedral service."

"A great many causes might be alleged for this," answered the Rector. "Custom is unhappily altogether against the daily Church service,

and therefore against attending Cathedral worship as a practice. The example too of our clergy and dignitaries is lamentably on the side of neglect and omission of this great privilege and Christian duty."

“I have often thought," observed Mr. Wilkinson, "that the real spirit of modern protestantism is more clearly and unanswerably set forth by this than by any other of its unfavourable characteristics. It is a fact that in cities of from five to fifty thousand inhabitants not ten can anywhere be found who regularly attend the Cathedral; and perhaps not one hundred who attend it at all. Yet we believe ourselves to be very religious and spiritually' disposed. I fear we must be tested after all by our practice."

"Were I," said Francis, " to enjoy the high privilege of a fixed residence in a city, I would try some such plan as the following. I would endeavour to unite myself with a body of perhaps twenty of the wealthier inhabitants, and as many more as could be relied upon, who should engage as a solemn duty to attend the Cathedral service twice every day throughout the year, if not prevented by illness or unavoidable absence. This simple and I trust unobjectionable compact would have the inestimable advantages of at once setting an example to others and of supplying a regular congregation to offer those constant prayers for the

Church and the city, which their self-styled 'spiritual' brethren think it unnecessary to do, as well as of removing the painful disgrace of empty seats and silent walls from the house of God. But my society should do more. Every member should agree to give or get by the willing contributions of friends, a certain annual sum, say ten guineas, (and there are few who might not by a little sacrifice or exertion give a great deal more,) for the decoration of the Cathedral under the sanction of the Dean. Only think what two hundred guineas expended yearly in filling the windows with the stained glass which once adorned them would effect in time! How many would be likely to add their unsolicited mite to so noble and interesting a work, I cannot undertake to say: but I think that some good donations might come in after the result of the first year's subscriptions was seen and admired. By such means too the ancient brasses and monuments might gradually be restored and replaced."

"I am sure I would not be one of your society, Mr. Francis," said Mrs. Merton, " nor help to fill our Cathedrals with the Popery from which they have been freed."

"Do you know who freed them?" asked Francis. "The Puritans! Cromwell and his gang of rebels: the murderers of their king and overthrowers of their Church! I wish people would