REVIEW.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1290, 8 May 1878, Page 3

REVIEW.

“ THE CHURCH QUARTERLY,” January, 1878. ft-ROM THE I’RESS, 1 A review of this stamp and calibre lias long boon wanted by the thoughtful members of the English Church. The Wcslcyans have their “ London Quarterly,” the Congregationalists their “ British Quarterly but till lately English Churchmen have had nothing beyond a monthly, and that a puor one, in which to discuss the principles, the policy, and the progress of their own communion. “ The Christian Remembrancer,” started by Dean Alford, attempted to fill up the gap. But though ably conducted, its life was a short one. “The Church Quarterly” now enters its third year with greater guarantees of success. Begun under the able editorship of Dr. Cazenove, it is now continued under the equally able directory of Canon Ashwell, who is also the editor of the “ Literary Churchman.” One secret of the success of the now periodical is its commendable liberality of spirit and breadth of view. Strict Church questions are of course handled, and receive a prominent place. But these do not absorb the entire attention of the writers. The physical sciences, the arts, and literature, generally, have their duo place, and are treated with skill, power, and judgment. Some articles of this kind, notably the one “The Unseen Universe,” by the late Canon Mozelcy, and one on “ Feminine Fiction,” by Miss Yonge, made their mark at once, and were largely quoted by some of the superior reviews. This mingling of the sacred with the secular, the Church with the world, is as wise as it is useful, since only in this way can both be understood, and the greatest good be accomplished. Much laughter could easily bo created by a humorous description of a man in search of a religion: just as we smiled over Dr. Syntax in search of the picturesque, or Ccclebs in search of a wife, or Japhet in search of a father. For such a man the article on the “spiritual claims of the Church of England” would be of great service. Out of one hundred and fifty-four different religions bodies, certified by the Registrar-General, each of which claims to be the true Church, the writer by a lucid clearing process, shows that only about a dozen are really worth ssiious attention. The majority of these being mere oil shoots from some larger body, it is enough to examine the parent society alone. The case for the Church of England is made out with considerable cogency and skill. Here is a point which is not always made as clear as it can and should be : “ The English Church is not only by far the oldest religious society, but it dates back in historical continuity to the Church of Primitive times. We know that British Bishops sat in the Synods of the church more than 1500 years ago, as the representatives of a body which was not new even then. When our heathen Saxon forefathers conquered Britain, and made it into England, they uprooted Christianity throughout most of the island, driving the ancient remnant of the Christian Church into the fastnesses of Wales, where it continued to hold its ground. Somewhat later, Saxon heathenism was attacked by Christian missionaries from two different quarters, working in two different parts of the island. In the south the Roman Church sent the missionary Augustine into Kent, where he founded the church of Canterbury. In the North the Irish Church sent out other missionaries, who worked chiclly in Northumberland and the neighboring regions. These three separate organisations, northern, southern, and western, gradually blended into one, and formed, in their totality, the Church of England ; the bishops and clergy of each and all of them having alike derived their doctrine and their commission from the undivided church of yet earlier times, and not attempting to exist side by side as separate and rival communions. This church then represents to all English citizens the original society set up on earth by our Lord Himself, not as being the whole of that society, but the particular portion of it, which in the course of Divine Providence, was permitted to root itself in and spread over this land of England.” It is a well-known fact that the English Church and the Greek Church are the only ones against which the Roman Church sees reason to argue seriously. The persistent and anxious way in which she tries to refute the claims of these, proves clearly she is afraid of them, and thinks their case only too good. The main charges made by the Romanists against the Church of England arc the rejection of the Pope’s jurisdiction and the alterations made in the Liturgy. But it is easy to show that these two very things have been done in kind by other churches without destroying their character even in Ultramontane eyes. The French Church, for example, has never submitted to the authority of the Index Expur- 1 gatorius. Thus it so far rejects the Pope’s authority on a point in which the claims of Rome have always been precise and imperative. And as to liturgical reform, scores of French dioceses abrogated the use of the Roman Breviary, compiling in its stead new oflice books of their own, in which the Scriptural element was largely increased, and the legendary matter still more largely diminished. Yet these two acts of resistance have never besn condemned. The Church of England has done nothing which in principle goes beyond these measures of the Church of France. The reforms have simply been on a larger scale, and her appeal to the undivided church, both as to doctrine and practice, has been only more consistent and thorough. During the last two years considerable attention has been paid to French and German home life. “Blackwood,” “Fraser,” “The Contemporary,” and “Macmillan,” have each had some very readable papers on this subject. The authors of these papers have now published them, and the “Church Quarterly” has a well written review upon them under the title of “Continental Culture.” The advocates of culture are never weary of saying that, give them a fair chance, and they will prove that the training and furnishing of the mind is the great panacea for all the roughness and coarseness of life. Religion is not only unnecessary, but is a positive hindrance. Well, we have simply to turn to the Continent and we find that these conditions have been fulfilled. Neither in Germany nor in Franco have the people been ovor-burdoned with religious restraint. The public education has been in the main free, compulsory, and secular. And what is the outcome of it all ? Hero is one result —“ That German men arc strong and scholarly, and German women domestic, no one lias ever doubted ; but what has the present form of culture done for their civilisation and refinement ? It may bo a national custom for German gentlemen to sit down and be waited on by the ladies, and a chivalrous Englishman who cannot bear to see them carrying his coffee cup and cake is simply supposed to be restless, and unable to wait for his turn to be helped. But it does not seem to us to bo so much refinement as a remnant of barbarism.” Again, “true refinement is surely reticent and reverent.” But there is little of cither on the continent. In the matter of interjections especially, neither German nor Catholic French women have what we may call any regard for the Third Commandment. i TUolsw oi refiueaieut, aluue ouo would Uunk t

would condemn exaggerated and inappropriate exclamations, and to English ears the calls upon sacred names on all trivial occasions are simply dreadful. Yet darker things are revealed. The holy estate of matrimony has lost much of its holiness in the people’s eyes. While marriages are 39 per cent, in England, they are only 19 per cent, in Germany. Marriage itself is but n feeble tie. Divorce is dangerously easy. “ Astonished English may hear a gentleman say at the table d'hote, speaking to the portly Countess opposite, “ When I had the honor of being the husband of Madame;” nay, the writer of “ German Home Life ” declares as a fact that in her own family there was an old genera], a Waterloo man, who played every evening with three divorced wives. Again, she tells of two brothers marrying two sisters, quarrelling, divorcing, exchanging partners, and finally, on the death of one husband and one wife, the two survivors being re-married. “The famous ‘double arrangement ’ in the ‘ Ant i-Jacobin ’ is here surpassed.” Tried by this practical test, therefore, culture, apart from the sanctions and blessings of true religion, must bo pronounced a failure. It leaves the noblest part of man undeveloped. It may strengthen and brighten, but it really fails to sweeten, to purify, and to ennoble the world’s best trinity—man’s body, sou), and spirit.

“ A Broad Church Bishop ” is the title of rather a heavy paper on the late Bishop Ewing, The stand-point of the review being High Church, one can hardly expect the writer tolerant, though he seems to enter fully into the worth and work of the Scotch Bishop. We think E wing’s strength is unduly depreciated by saying that there is a good deal of the amateur air about most of his work. Such a noble, pure-minded influence as his was can never bo measured by the dogmatic clearness of his published writings, lie himself was the first to acknowledge the good he had received from such men as Thos. Erskino and John M'Lcod Campbell. Of the former Bishop Ewing slid, “I learn more from his conversation than from all the books I read. His looks and life of love are better than a thousand homilies. They show you how divine a thing humanity is when the life which wo live in the llrsh is that of conscious union with God, His abiding attitude of soul is that of one who is ever listening and saying, ‘ Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth.* ” And what lie thus said of one of his spiritual fathers, others said of hires If. Hero is an example of his singular mixture of gravity and humour. The Bishop was discovered one day in front of a business establishment in London with a number of assistants around him, whom he was holding spell-bound with his aillucnt talk, interspersed with quaint stories of books and men. Stopping suddenly, ho then said, “But now I have something better to offer,” and there and then he moved them all to wonder and reverence by giving them bis blessing. “ I never saw anything, says the writer, “ that could be compared with this scene. The Bishop was like a magnet among steel filings. I should rather say that he took my young men and myself completely by storm, and, indeed, he never comes to my private room to talk merely about business, without leaving me the impression that he was a ‘ godly warlock.’ ”

The short notices of books at the end of the number are exceedingly well done. They are evidently written by different hands, and after careful reading of the book on which the notice is given. The inquiring and intelligent churchman is thus kept informed of the most valuable works bearing on Christian thought, doctrine, and practice.