that the creed to which we particularly allude is disapproved of by some of the best and wisest members of the Church of England; nevertheless, it still remains part and parcel of the Protestant faith, and is asserted by the Anglican Church to be one which "except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved."

Placing this Christian idea of God in the most favourable light, after the various futile and mis-called explanations of the great mystery have been considered, the one unalterable fact still remains, that all Christendom must and does acknowledge three separate Gods, however resolvable they may be in One, viz., God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, each of whom can act separately though in concert with the others, and appear separately though of one substance with the others. Now the learned divines of the Roman, Greek, and Reformed Churches all admit and insist on this Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity, as a great mystery; these poor foolish, silly men do, forsooth, explain to us what that mystery is, they, with their petty finite human intellect, (no doubt more or less under inspiration), have fathomed the nature of this great mystery, have, so to speak, dissected their God, and lecture us on the character of his constitution. But this is not surprising perhaps, when we consider that by Divine revelation also, they have been enabled to inform us how the world was created in seven days; the exact periods of time and successive processes which occurred; how man also and woman were made, and how the sun, moon, and stars to give light to the earth, and having done all this with Divine aid, from the same infallible source they will reveal to you the very nature and composition of God Himself, and the result is, that He is not only One, but Three also, as it suits His Divine will.

The first lesson man has to learn is sincere humility, and the first fruit of that true humility is for him clearly to perceive and admit that he cannot possibly comprehend the nature of God, fathom His wisdom, follow out His course of procedure-nor understand the scheme of His universe. In attempting even to do so, man overrates his power, and mis-apprehends his place; he measures his finite and human ideas against the infinite power and wisdom of God, fails most ridiculously in the effort, falls into

the most wretched errors, and adopts the silliest theories. In this respect the most profound intellects fail, profound, according to our petty human ideas of profundity, but shallow indeed and superficial when compared with the supreme intellect and infinite wisdom of the Creator.

On such subjects as the existence and nature of God, His universal government, infinity of time and of space, the nature of spiritual existence, the individual eternal immortality of the soul, how man becomes a flesh-embodied spirit on earth, and where he goes to on leaving it, or in what manner he enters into his next state of existence on such subjects as these, the highest wisdom for man, is not to reason, and certainly not to dogmatise, for they are questions entirely beyond the power of his understanding thoroughly to comprehend, of his reason thoroughly to solve; and even were they explained to him by special revelation, his present finite and imperfect nature clearly and evidently could not enable him to comprehend them in their full completeness. But He can conceive it all, can conceive, perceive and admit all these questions as facts, facts which are only mysteries to him on account of the partial and imperfect development of his spirit in this present life; facts which he can conceive, and which it is his right and duty to seek to conceive, and to hold the most reasonable conclusions concerning them, though each and all should be unproveable by human reason; facts to be bettered by no argument, and which are indeed on that very ground to be held and insisted on as articles of faith the conviction of the truth of which is to be held so firmly, that no cumulative evidence, no amount of the subtilest reasoning in their favour, could strengthen his assured belief in them.

Man on earth sees but a minute portion of the entire system, and sees that little but darkly, moreover, and as through a veil. He learns that the entire universe consists of an unknown number of planetary systems, each dependent on its central sun. In our own system the inhabitants of our own planet, Earth, are entirely ignorant of the nature and extent of life as organised through God's wisdom and love in the other planets, and this is clearly so ordained by the Creator Himself,

who has reserved it to Himself, when and how that knowledge shall be revealed to us, but we are full sure of this, that great wonders of that wisdom and love, miracles of power and majesty, such as the mind of man hath not nor ever can in this world imagine, are yet to be revealed to the faithful and to the good.

All these planetary systems, as regards spiritual life and their material developments, appear to be perfectly independant of each other, but all and each are individually and collectively most assuredly dependent on the One only Lord God, the Creator, Sustainer, Preserver, and Perfecter of the entire universe, from whom all life is, by whom all life acts, and to whom all life aspires. He alone is the Spiritual centre of Universal life, the Infinite Being who through all time and space, has been, is, and ever will be omnipotent in the order established by Himself, who is perfect order and perfect law. Immutable, in whom is no change, no, nor shadow of a change. The Omniscient to whom everything past and future is known, and from whom nothing is hid. The All-just, All-judging, All-merciful, in whom perfect justice, impartial judgment, and infinite mercy are conjoined. The King of kings and Supreme Ruler of all created beings, to whom all earthly kings and rulers are accountable. The All-pervading from whose presence neither height, nor depth, nor width, nor darkness, nor death can hide us. The only Saviour, in whom alone is salvation, and there is no other Saviour but Him. The Divine Artificer, Architect and Artist of the visible glories of all created life. From whom alone is derived all order, law, beauty, goodness, truth, power and glory. To whom alone is due all reverence, love, admiration, worship and obedience. Who in His Divine essence, is perfect love and perfect wisdom, perfect goodness and perfect truth. The one Supreme and only Creator, the Governor of the Universe, who made all living souls to be blessed through life in Him, and whose final glorious destiny it is, to receive and enjoy the heaven of His boundless love, through obedience to His commands: and to Him alone and to none other, shall be ascribed all Honour, Power, Might, Majesty and Glory for ever and for ever. The clear perception and thorough conviction of this

great and simple truth is the fundamental basis of all true and universal religion. The unity of God is so logical a fact, that ages of discussion and the most elaborate and scientific investigation can only tend to spread the truth, and confirm it in the minds of men, and when you can describe a perfect circle from more than one centre, we may believe in more than one God.

The tenets of the Universal Church then are

1. That there is one only true and living God-one and one only.

2. That He is one in Spirit and in substance, and perfect in each beyond the power of man to conceive. 3. That He is the Creator, Sustainer, and Perfecter of the entire universe.

4. The one Supreme Governor and Ruler of all that therein is.

5. That His Government is perfect in its providence. 6. That He is the only origin of everything that is, in whom alone dwells all power and dominion.

7. That He is an eternal, infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, beneficent Being.

8. To whom is due from all mankind, honour, reverence, gratitude, obedience, love, and worship, now and for ever.

CHAPTER II.

IDOLATRY

Is a word often on your lips in allusion to a practice supposed to belong to the past. But did you ever ask yourself explicitly what it really means?-eidōlon, a likeness or representation; latreia, service, worship-the worship of something which is not the thing itself, only an image, a representation of such thing, a something held in reverence as a visible representation of an ideal conception-not anything which you necessarily take to be a Deity itself; not an image or shape absolutely, inherently, and actually

endued with power to speak or act by itself that is fetishism, the very lowest form of worship, to which base degree idolatry may indeed come, and does naturally tend. But idolatry means simply using a statue or other representation of the Deity, and addressing it, under the belief that He is thus in more immediate communion with you, and you with Him. Even in the darkest times of the old mythology, you have no reason to believe idolatry to have been other than this. The statue of the god was never thought, except amongst the most grossly ignorant perhaps, to be more than a representation, an image, on which the eyes, and by the eyes the thoughts, could be fixed. The grand figure of the Olympian Jove was but an ideal figure. Phidias had never seen the great Deity, and could at best follow a type which had been handed down to him through past ages, or at most invent a new one, which he might feel to be more noble and expressive. The Roman not for one moment supposed that there was an actual Janus amongst the gods, with conjoined heads, as represented in the images which distinguished his temples.

Good men, however much they may speak with horror of ancient idolatry, as of some dreadful curse from which the world is now happily released, appear to be blind to the miserable fact, that in Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Austria, Belgium, Greece, and, indeed, throughout the greater portion of Europe-shall we add, throughout the greater portion of the world?-positive, visible, and authorised idolatry exists, and riots in all the fulness of its shame, and that the greatest number of so-called Christians are still actual idolaters. Moreover, we declare that the idolatry of the present age is, if anything, of a grosser nature than that known to the ancients, and is more damnable as it is more inexcusable; more gross, because its priests absolutely profess to place before the devotee an actual likeness of his God, and of those holy personages akin to God-the Queen of Heaven, the Mother of God! the saints, etc., as indubitable resemblances of what they were when on earth; and not only do they knowingly, wilfully, and deliberately set up these lying representations for the people to pray to, or through, we care not which-professed portraits, which they themselves cannot but be conscious have no foundation in fact, or can