THE TRUE REMEDY

FOR THE EVILS OF THE AGE.

MY REVEREND BRETHREN,

Another eventful year has rolled over our heads since our last meeting, a year which has again been filled with fierce, distracting struggles in the chief nations of Continental Europe. These struggles have been raging with little cessation or intermission, although the powers of destruction have no longer been sweeping everything before them with the same irresistible, unresisted force. The paralysis by which the holders of authority in nation after nation seemed on a sudden utterly numbed, has past away; and they have been shewing that the strong have not altogether become as tow, that the might of armies is still a reality, that discipline and honour, fidelity and loyalty still retain their thrones in the hearts of soldiers, and that institutions, which have been rooted for centuries, and have grown with the growth, and strengthened with the strength of a nation, will not perish and vanish at once, "like the baseless fabric of a vision." Attempts have been made to modify old institutions, and to establish new ones, in such a manner that the rights of the Past and of the Present shall be combined in them; and

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the friends of order and of law, the soberminded lovers of their country, have recognised that these are the only institutions which can stand the onset of the Future. These attempts however have produced little effect as yet: for the throes of a nation do not subside in a moment; and when the labour has been violent and convulsive, years must elapse ere that which is born of it attains to form and comeliness. A stable edifice of national peace and prosperity cannot be erected and cemented without a long period of anxious thought and patient action and persevering energy and self-sacrifice.

Meanwhile another throne has fallen. At the very time when the temporal thrones, which had been cast down by the successive shocks of the revolutionary earthquake, were beginning to lift themselves up again, a spiritual throne, which had exercised a far wider and longer and deeper and more awful sway than any other, fell to the ground, as rapidly almost as a falling star. It fell; and its temporal power was wrested from it. The city, which for more than two thousand years had been the centre and head of a vast empire, under one form or other, stript itself of that empire, and tried to rise out of it into the higher dignity of freedom. What will be the results of these efforts we know not, even with reference to their immediate object. Far less can we estimate what the effects will be on the large portion of the Christian Church which bows to the authority of that spiritual throne. Nor shall I waste your time in trying to divine what they may be. For this, which is always a hazardous, and mostly an utterly idle enterprise, is so more manifestly than ever now, when the strangeness of a result seems almost

to bring it more nearly within the range of probabilities, in the region of politics, as well as in that of the mechanical arts. It is true indeed that, when we look back on the events of the last two years, we may discern how they all exemplify the providential government of the world, and prove that the destinies of nations are not regulated and decided mainly by those physical forces, to which politicians are wont to ascribe the highest importance, but far more by moral powers. The further we search into the concatenation of these events, the more clearly do we perceive that they have been determined by moral causes, which in truth alone deserve the name of causes: and even when the apparent temporary effect has been the triumph of what seems to be the worse party, this, if traced to its source, will be found to have sprung from divers sins of commission, and more and worse of omission, on the side of the better party, who have been vanquisht. But, as in private life it is always impossible to tell beforehand whom the stroke of wrath will visit, and under what form, so, with regard to nations, seldom can we make out which has already filled the measure of its iniquities, and on which the bolt is about to fall and this difficulty is hightened, when the march, or rather rush of events has become so rapid, that, even as we are beginning to speculate concerning some new critical change, another has already come to pass, and has transformed the aspect of affairs.

You may tell me, my Brethren, that the purpose of our meeting on this occasion is not to consider and discuss the affairs and the condition of Europe, but of the English Church. This is true: but, in saying what

I have said, I have not been induced solely by the momentous character of the events, which have given so intense an interest to the news from abroad during the last year and a half. My main purpose was to remind you of the wonderful contrast between the condition of England during this period, and that of the principal nations on the Continent of Europe. Doubtless you have often thought of this already, and have meditated upon it, and have lifted up your hearts in thanksgiving to Him who has so graciously preserved us safe and unharmed, when the neighbouring countries have been strewn with wrecks. Even a year ago the contrast was such, that it could not fail to strike every observant mind. But during the last twelvemonth it has been still more conspicuous, the internal condition of England having been more than usually tranquil; so that the few turbulent persons, who wisht to trouble that tranquillity, merely covered themselves with shame and ridicule; and this too notwithstanding the scantiness of the last harvest, which at other times might have furnisht an occasion for much discontent, as it was the cause of much inevitable distress. In fact our tranquillity has been such, that, as in every country there are always a number of restless spirits, who never feel at ease unless they have something to contend and quarrel about, while multitudes would find their life lie heavily upon them, without some outward stimulant, divers factitious grievances have been devised, as it were, to keep the people of England from sinking into torpour through lack of sufficient excitement.

Among the questions which might almost seem to have been mooted for this purpose,-so difficult is it