unhappy divisions, differing in the doctrines which we receive, refusing to obey the same ruler; one party setting up one society, and another, another; charging each other with mutual faults, and endeavouring too often to supplant each other in obtaining power; and, that which ought to be the last thought of Christians, temporal and political power? And while this is the case, can we wonder, that when we stand before heathen nations, as yourself and I are now standing before this good Brahmin, each of us professing to be the messenger of God to him, yet neither agreeing in our messages nor acknowledging each other's commission, they the heathen should turn away, as this Brahmin is disposed to do, in perplexity, if not in contempt, and should refuse to believe either that we are sent by Christ, or that Christ was sent by God? Is it not our Lord's own prophecy, that, when his followers differ, men will not receive their persons, or believe their message? And who are to blame for this grievous sin?

"Sir, he said, the Brahmin cannot reasonably object that our religion is not true because we are divided in opinion on it; for Hindoos likewise are divided into many sects and parties. If Christians have fallen from their belief, so have the Buddhists and the Jains. If Christians, acknowledging Christ, have yet differed as to their notions of the Divine Being, so have the Saivas, who contend for the attributes of Siva, and the Vaishnavas who adore Vishnu, and the Gánápatyas who adore Ganesa, and the Sáctas: and these again have subdivided themselves into numberless sects. No fewer than three hundred and thirty-nine branches of heresy and schism are counted up. And if they complain of us that we differ in our interpretation of our Scriptures, so also we are told of the Védas, that in the progress of successive instruction so great variations crept into the text, or into the manner of reading and reciting it, and into the no less sacred precepts for its use and application, that eleven hundred different schools of scriptural knowledge arose. It may be hard for Europeans to understand the exact nature of all those sects and schisms, but is it not the fact that they exist?

"The Brahmin did not deny it.

"And I fear, I added, that with you, as with us, there have been wars and persecutions, massacres and banishments, by which one sect has endeavoured to avenge itself on its opponents, or to gain power over them; as if the priests of God and ministers of truth could by this way do him service. "The Brahmin was silent.

“And yet, I said, addressing myself to the missionary, it is but a poor thing to silence a charge against ourselves by retorting it, however justly, upon others; and that the worshippers of Vishnu and Brahma have lost their unity of doctrine and worship, or have treated each other cruelly, is no parallel to the same calamity and the same crime among the worshippers of Christ. Have they, we may well ask ourselves, such guarantees to the doctrines which they have differed from, as God has given to us, or any such injunctions to preserve love and brotherly kindness, and to do good unto all men, as we have? Rather, if we must come before them with the marks of dissension upon us, let us do so with shame, and sorrow, and self-reproach; and prayer, that our wounds may be healed, and the Church once more gather her lost children together in one fold, and all proclaim the truth to the world with one tongue and one heart."-(pp. 42-46.)

These remarks, it is true, contain no original discovery, but we concur fully in their justice, and their great importance. No one who has read the "Ruins of Empires" can fail to be impressed with the evil of those rents in the Church, which supply the infidel with his most plausible objections, and form a mighty stumbling-block in the way of missionary success. The union of a living church is the grand object of our Saviour's prayer,

the sure pledge and earnest of the world's redemption. But this is far higher and nobler than the visible unity of an outward pale, enclosing a fermenting mass of worldliness and corruption. True Christian fellowship includes within it, when perfect and complete, the possession of external unity; but the steps which it proposes for its attainment are often the reverse of those which formalists and persecutors in every age have been forward to employ.

Let us now see what constitutes, in Mr. Sewell's opinion, the source of the evil, and the nature of the remedy which he proposes for our actual divisions ::

"Alas, Sir, said the Brahmin, how can you hope that this should ever be the case? If I understand right what has been told me by this missionary, all the doctrines of your religion are contained in a large book-and this book is to be placed before every individual, and each individual is to read it by himself, and to form from it his own opinions. If this be so, how can you expect that all who read shall arrive at the same conclusion?

I said nothing; but the Missionary replied that the book was easy and intelligible, and no one could mistake it.

"And yet, said the Brahmin, many do mistake it, by the statement which I have just heard; for Christians, who all profess to read this book, do differ greatly in their doctrines. There was one Christian Gooroo here who wished ine to believe that Jesus Christ, whom you worship, was not God, or like to God, but only a mere man like himself; and you declare that He is God; and yet both of you appeal and send me for information to the same book; and if one of you is not a blasphemer, the other must be an idolator; and you both tell me that there are certain things necessary for me to believe in order to be saved. What are these things?

"You must believe, said the Missionary, in Jesus Christ.

Do you also agree in this? said the Brahmin, turning to me. "From my heart, I replied.

"And that he is your Saviour and Redeemer, continued the Missionary; that he died upon the cross to wipe out your sins; that he is the Lord your God, to be worshipped, and prayed to, and blessed for all your blessings; and that it is through Him only, by the gift of his Holy Spirit, that you can be reconciled to God your Father, and brought to everlasting life. “And is this, asked the Brahmin of me again, your belief also?

"Most assuredly, I said.

"And these are the doctrines, he asked of the Missionary, contained in your sacred books?

M. They are.

"B. Are they all that is contained in them?

"M. No; there is also an outline of the history of the creation of the world, and an account of the history of one nation, the Jews, whom God selected as his chosen people, to be the depository of the knowledge of Him, the one true God. And there are also hymns, and moral teaching, and prophecies, and laws, and four accounts of things which Christ did and said when he was upon the earth, and of things done and said by his disciples immediately after he was ascended into heaven; and letters written by those disciples to the societies they established; and a prophecy of what would happen to them afterwards. The Bible is a large book, containing an account of many things, or rather it is a collection of many small books written at different times, on various subjects, by various persons.

"B. And must I believe all that is here told me? said the Brahmin. "M. Certainly, for it all comes from God.

"B. And if I doubted whether one particular chapter or verse were an in

terpolation, or were not inspired, or disputed some one particular fact, which perhaps was of no importance, and not meant to be insisted on, or expressed ambiguously, should I be excluded from salvation?

"M. No, said the Missionary, for there are certain parts of the Bible of which we ourselves do not profess to be perfectly sure that they came from the prophets or apostles of God; one or two verses of which the best Christians have doubted whether they be genuine; many things which seem to be stated literally, but may perhaps be intended to be taken figuratively, as in the prophecies.

"B. And if I were blind or deaf, or could not read your language, or had no translation of your Bible, could I then be saved in any way?

"M. Certainly, if you were willing to receive the doctrines which Christ has commanded us to preach to you.

B. It is not then a belief in the Bible, but a belief in certain doctrines, which you hold to be necessary to salvation?

"M. It is so.

"B. And those doctrines are not the only things contained in the Bible, but a part of the things?

M. It is so.

B. I suppose, then, these doctrines, which we must all, as you say, be. lieve, and the exact number of them, are all pointed out in the Bible; for if some part of the Bible, or the true meaning of some part, may be doubted without risking salvation, and others may not, surely there is some mark set upon them, that there may be no possibility of mistake.

You are not unreasonable, I said, in your demand. It is surely probable that God would not send a message to mankind, on the reception of which depended our eternal life, without putting it into some definite form.

"B. I must ask you then, he said to me, for this form before I can know what I am to believe, or what you profess as Christians. In what part of the Bible is it to be found?

"I would rather, I replied, that you should ask the Missionary; for his view of the revelation of God differs from that which my church teaches, and I would wish to hear his answer as well as yourself.

"M. I have told you that belief in Christ is necessary to salvation, and I mentioned also certain doctrines which are likewise essential, and which are found in the Bible.

"B. Will you tell me their exact number, and point out the page of your Bible where they are specified, that I may read them for myself?

"The Missionary seemed perplexed-he began to count upon his fingers, and to turn over the leaves of his Bible which he had taken from his pocket; but at last he was obliged to state that he had mentioned the principal doc trines, and that on reading the Scriptures carefully, every one would perceive them.

"The Brahmin shook his head. Not every one, he replied, my friend, for I have known many of your countrymen, calling themselves Christians, who, like yourself, wished me to believe the doctrines of Christianity, and, like yourself, appealed to the Bible, but yet gave me a different account of the doctrines which I must admit in order to be saved; leaving out some of yours, and putting in others: and they never could point out to me in their Bibles the form and list which I required, or could suggest to me any other mode of distinguishing the essential doctrines from those which they allowed to be non-essential, except by each man's private reason and private feeling. And when I asked if these in every human being were uncorrupted and infallible guides, they told me no; that we were depraved in our natures, and blind in our understanding, and corrupt in our affections from our youth up. How then, I ask you, am I to discern the truths of God without some other help than my own eyes to read, and my own reason to judge them?"

And once more shaking his head, and with a little smile upon his lips, he was about to take his leave.

"Stop, I said, my friend; you have asked the Missionary to give you an accurate, definite account of those doctrines which he calls on you to receive as necessary to salvation, and he has told you they are found in the Bible, in which I cordially agree with him; but he has not been able to state clearly where, nor to enumerate them upon any other authority than his own sense of their comparative importance. In that sense of their importance I also agree with him. But I can also enumerate them accurately in a form not collected or drawn up by myself, but which I received from my Church. Do you wish to hear it?

"Willingly, said the Brahmin.

"I will repeat then to you, I said, the Belief of the Christian, without receiving which, I, as an appointed messenger of God, announce to you that you cannot be saved. It is the body of truth revealed to us by God, and by God commanded to be laid before you through us his servants.. It is as follows:

"I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead: He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the Holy Catholic Church: the Communion of Saints; the Forgiveness of Sins; the Resurrection of the Body, and the Life everlasting.' Amen.

"Is this, I ask, a short, clear, and definite enumeration ?"-(pp. 50, 51.) To analyze these statements will require a previous exhibition of several principles, which in the above extract are obscured under dim and ambiguous expressions, or directly opposed.

Truth is the only source of Christian union. Without the knowledge and love of the truth as it is in Jesus, external conformity is only an unreal mockery, and utterly worthless in the sight of God. Wherever the Gospel has been received in its grand outlines, the being and holiness of God, our fallen state as sinners, our need of a Saviour, the infinite love and atoning sacrifice of Christ, the promise of forgiveness and the need of holiness, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the judgment to come,-there a real unity with all the people of Christ has begun. But full and perfect union can only result from the fulness and perfection of Divine truth, received into the soul of the Christian. It is a high and glorious attainment, which no expedients of theological quackery, or lordly assumptions of an ambitious priesthood can ever secure. It can flow from no other source than the meekness of mutual forbearance, the deep, constant, prayerful, and practical study of God's holy word, and a large outpouring, on all the members of the Church, in its various branches, of the blessed spirit of truth and holiness.

Truth is the only source, then, of real unity; but how is truth itself to be attained? We must here consider the source from which it is derived, the vessel that receives it, and the channel by which it is conveyed.

The great source of Divine truth, and to ourselves the only pure and unmingled source, is the written word of God. During the life-time of the Apostles, indeed, and before the canon was complete, their oral teaching would equally fulfil that office. But when the last of the twelve had finished his course, though other and important channels remained to convey its doctrines, there was only one pure and perfect fountain left upon earth, and as if to mark the event more fully, the last book of that sacred canon was guarded by a fearful curse and a redoubled blessing. The rulers of the Church who succeeded the Apostles, might and did transmit for a long time much precious truth to the people. But neither their assertion of a doctrine, nor the further assertion that they had received it from the Apostles, was now the true warrant on which the faith of Christians was to repose. It was a weighty presumption, and nothing more. The word of God remained the sole authoritative standard; and in every ecclesiastical debate, to the law and the testimony was henceforward the only just and rightful appeal.

But a fountain of truth, however full and pure, will avail us little, unless the vessel be prepared to receive it. Here is the next step in this difficult inquiry. The word of God is plain, in all its great doctrines, to a humble heart, to the broken and contrite spirit of the mourner. But it is not plain to the proud and contentious, to the scribes and disputers of this world. The preparation of the heart is the grand essential for the reception of the Gospel of Christ. When once the secret stumbling-block of impenitence has been taken away, it will not require laboured reasonings upon apostolical succession, and on the evidence of Christianity to be drawn from the crusades, in order to make the word of God precious to the soul. He whose eyes have once been opened by the Spirit of God to discern the excellence of the heavenly message, will not be persuaded, by a thousand declamations on the ambiguity of the Scriptures, that he needs the smoked glass of human tradition, that he may see clearly their rich and glorious landscapes of everlasting truth. In short, the deeper mysteries of God's word are difficult, even for the most learned and holy men, and tradition yields us but slight help in unfolding them. But the great doctrines of the faith are revealed in it with the utmost plainness to every humble inquirer, while every part is alike obscure to worldly and contentious disputants. And hence it follows that prayer, humility, and earnest meditation, avail far more than the most abundant supply of external helps without these, for a sure and rapid advance in the knowledge of all saving doctrine.

Christian docility, however, implies in its very nature a willing