The whole human family at any one time on earth, is the raw material, so to speak, from which disciples are made. It is by the preaching of the Gospel that they become disciples. And, wherever, or, whenever they hear that "joyful sound," and are led to receive it, they are members of the true Church of the Living God.

The Church of England, with her usual comprehensiveness, recognises, and prays for "the Holy Church throughout all the world," in the prayer "for all conditions of men." She employs the language of Charity, and breathes the very spirit of the Master. "O God, the Creator and Preserver of all mankind, we humbly beseech Thee for all sorts and conditions of men-that Thou wouldest be pleased to make Thy ways known unto them, Thy saving health unto all nations. More especially, we pray for the good estate of the Catholic Church that it may be so guided, and governed, by Thy Good Spirit, that all who profess and call themselves Christians, may be led into the way of Truth, and hold the Faith, in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life."

All men, of all climes, are the springing field of God Almighty's promise. "Many shall come from the East, and from the West, and from the North, and from the South, and shall sit down in the Kingdom of God." [Luke xiii. 29]. To confine the Divine prerogative of

mercy to the sect or community to which we may belung, is a narrow, paltry, island-view of things, which can be accounted for only on the general principle of selfishness --that great substratum of human motive and conduct.

The favorite formula of the Church of Israel, that "Salvation is of the Jews," received a significant rebuke, as well by our Lord's sermon in the Synagogue of Nazareth, as by His pointed allusion to the faith of the Roman Centurion. The religion of this Roman officer had its source in the soul, and its evidence in the life. And He, who saw both the evidence, and the source, addressed the Jewish by-standers, and said, "Verily I have not found such faith, no, not in Israel." Then immediately he added words clearly indicating, that many who seem to enjoy peculiar advantages from their adhesion to a visible Church, shall be rejected at the last, while others, who were regarded as beyond its pale, shall come and sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom.

Some persons might charitably suggest, that this pious officer in the Roman army came within the range of the "uncovenanted mercies" of God. But the words of our Blessed Lord have no such qualification. They require no setting-they shine in the simplicity and purity of their native light.

In every

so-called Church on earth, and even beyond

the merely mechanical boundaries of such Churches, there are true and faithful hearts, which have not bowed the knee to Baal ! "There are some disciples even in Sardis." In the book of Revelation, we read of the denunciation and doom of the mystic Babylon, and yet, the people of God were found dwelling in the midst of her. If they were not true believers, where would be the force and meaning of the warning to "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." [Rev. xiii. 4.]

The Jews were never so confident of their spiritual pre-eminence, as when they were in the very act of denying the Lord of life, and glory, and preferring a murderer before their Messiah! This may well suggest to us, that spiritual life is not regulated by the mere Church-system to which we belong. If the living Ark be not maintained in its own commanding position in the Holy of Holies, there is no honour to God, and no safety to man. In that communion, the congregations may be numerous, the worshippers amiable, the temples magnificent, the ceremonies imposing, the priesthood devoted, and the policy profound. But if the name, the doctrines, and the presence of Christ do not occupy the place which God has assigned to them, and which they so justly deserve and that, not mechanically, but in spirit and in power-there is nothing really saving and sancti

fying in His sight. All else may be beauty to the eye, and music to the ear, and flattery to the heart of man, but the Temple is a Spiritual vacuum-"The Glory" is not there.

There are certain general principles of Church government laid down in the New Testament. God, who is the author, not of confusion but of order, has in the Old, as well as in the New Testament, made regulations for the decent and orderly observance of public worship, and the spiritual oversight of His people. But, admitting all this, we are also taught that "he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh." It is not the cowl that makes the monk. The mere robe of office, does not invest its wearer with the inward and spiritual Grace, for which the Psalmist prays, when he says, "Let Thy priests be clothed with righteousness." [Ps. cxxxii.] Hophni and Phinehas had the robe of office, and yet, they parted with the Ark of God, and brought shame, and ruin, upon the Church to which they belonged. Like them, we may have delegated authority-hereditary dignity-transmitted power-office -argument, and eloquence, but, these are not the weapons for "piercing asunder to the dividing of soul and spirit.” [Heb. iv. 12.] They cannot penetrate and arrest the soul of man. No. It is the doctrine—the spirit—the example of Jesus. It is the mind of humility-the tone of feeling

-the word of love-the life of righteousness.

These

are the influences that wind their way to the hidden man of the heart, and in language intelligible to the humblest, and the mightiest, they declare that "the priests are clothed with righteousness, and that the saints sing for joyfulness."

Suppose, then, a system of rites and ceremonies to be the most scriptural imaginable, and enforced with the utmost strictness, and that not in a single particular is there the least divergence from the ancient routine of worship, yet still there might be no scriptural unity. Beneath the unvarying garb of ceremonial uniformity, there may lurk a soul-destroying heresy, which, secretly but surely, disseminates its poison, while the people are slumbering, without the slightest suspicion of the mischief, on the easy cushions of formality. The form of Godliness remains, but the power has disappeared. Like insects* that deposit, in the bodies of caterpillars, eggs, which, when hatched, produce grubs that feed on the inward parts of their victims, till nothing is left but the empty skin, so, the vitality of the Church may be insensibly impaired, till it be reduced to the mere shell of an external ritual-cheating the soul with skeletons of truth.

"The Apostles founded Christian Churches (says the late Archbishop Whately) all based on the same principles,

*See Note.