the Goths. Now "the Catholic faith" became triumphant. In A. D. 380, Theodosius published an edict for the establishment of the true faith. In A. D. 381, he summoned the great Council at Constantinople, at which additions were made to the Nicene Creed, in the article of the Son, that he was "begotten before all ages," "—and by this article on the Holy Ghost, -"And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and Son, who together with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who spoke by the prophets." This, however, was not the Trinity. The contest was by no means ended. In A. D. 383, Theodosius called a Council at Constantinople of the leaders of the conflicting parties, in order to effect a reconciliation, but it was of no avail.

Civil power, the authority of an imposing belief, and divisions among the Arians themselves, threw the supremacy into the hands of the other party, who were by degrees, slowly but surely, building up the doctrine they seemed pledged to uphold. The struggle went on, from country to country, and from city to city,Church against ChurchBishop against Bishop - Emperors, ecclesiastics, Huns, Christianized Goths, or rather Vandalized Christians, fighting and cursing, pell-mell together. At length, somewhere about the commencement of the fifth century, it was proclaimed to the world in most remarkable language, that God is not one, but three. The doctrine that had thus been forming for so many ages, at length was plainly stated in the form of a "Creed;" which, though falsely, bore the name of Athanasius. Its author is not known. It made its appearance from some dark corner, as suited its character, and after a considerable lapse of time was received as the faith of the Roman Catholic Church. It was accepted in France about the middle of the ninth century; in Spain and Germany, still later; at Rome about A. D. 1014. It has been set to music, and was chanted in the English churches in the tenth century :

"Whoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith.

"Which faith except every one do keep entire and inviolate, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.

"Now, the Catholic faith is this; that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity."

0. B. F.

the Jews believed that their Messiah, when he took possession of his throne on earth, should reign a thousand years in happiness and glory. Through all those days of suffering and blood in which the foundations of the religion were laid, it was the relief of the afflicted Christians to anticipate the time when every knee should bow to him whose right it was to reign, and his persecuted followers should be lifted from the dust. Many a time in the Christian history has this vision been indulged. Often has the time been fixed, but the hour has arrived and brought no change with it; casting only a momentary chill, however, upon the hopeful propensities of mankind, since in every succeeding age the same hope rises, only to set in disappointment and sorrow again.

This taste and tendency on the part of imaginative believers offers a great temptation to those persons, who find their account in flattering human delusion, and who do it without remorse of conscience, since in deceiving others they generally succeed to some extent in imposing upon themselves. Hosts of minor prophets have risen up, sufficiently worldly in their views, but each proclaiming that the end of the world was at hand. They have generally been men utterly incapable of taking just and enlightened views of any subject. Thinking that they perceived some intimations of the kind in Scripture, they have seized upon them as grand discoveries. The imagination always sees its way clear, when the reason is not consulted; and as they have published their results with some sincerity and abundant self-applause, they have always found enough who were sufficiently ignorant of the Scriptures to believe them. Sometimes a harmless comet, moving quietly on its far-off way, was to break from God's control and dash our earth to pieces; or some other of the less familiar changes of nature filled men with dismay; but when the appointed hour arrived, the world moved on in calm indifference through its heavenly circle, and there was not an end even to the follies and delusions in it, for it was but a little while before the same wild fancies were renewed, and after deceiving many to their injury, went heavily down into contempt and darkness again.

There must be a reason why this process can thus be perpetually repeated; otherwise men would gather some

information from the past. And as we have had the opportunity of tracing the course of one of these hallucinations, we may perhaps be able to say how and why it is, that so many after escaping from one delusion of this kind are so ready to fall into another. The explanation seems to be found in a certain state of mind, in which the opinion originates. The opinion is not the cause, but the effect; and as, when a person sees things yellow, we send not for a surgeon to operate on his eyes, but for a physician to heal the disorder of his system, these humiliating errors are to be resisted, not by Scriptural interpretation, nor by an exposure of their unsoundness, but by the slower process of correcting the state of mind out of which they grow. It is not so disheartening a labor as many suppose; at least it is not so discouraging, as to find common sense views utterly powerless, as they are in these cases. Since nothing is accomplished by direct appeal and instruction, all the encouragement there can be, must be found in that alterative process, which sooner or later will reconcile reason and religion in the public mind, and make the divided, one.

That such things are owing to a habit of mind rather than to any mistake of divine instruction, may be seen in the early Christians themselves. It is easy to see in their Epistles the traces of an impression that the end of the world was at hand. They were employed in bearing new and distasteful truths to mankind. New truths are never welcome; the public mind is so reluctant to admit them, that it always seems to those who preach them, as if they were laboring in vain. It is like a river breaking out from the mountains and running confidently to the deep; the great sea rises in displeasure, roars and resists, dashing in thunder against it, but at last when the elements have arranged themselves and found their places, submits and takes it in. So every new truth is angrily resisted at first, though at last it finds its best friends in those who were formerly its most vehement opposers. Meantime those to whom the new truth is entrusted, not having the gift of prophecy to see from the beginning to the end, not knowing the calm that will shortly follow, are dismayed and despondent; and they are in that state of mind which easily generates the feeling, that the end of all things is

come.