was well fitted to furnish the vessels needed for the various uses." About 670 Wilfrid, Bishop of York, used sheets of lead to cover the roof of his church, and glazed the windows, which before that had allowed free passage to the wind and rain. The church of Hexham, built about 675, is described in terms like these: "It had pillars and porticoes, and was adorned with a wondrous length and height of walls, nor was it ever heard that such another church was erected on this side the Alps" up to that time; it was also rich in ornaments of silver and gold and precious stones; the altar hangings were of silk, wrought with delicate embroidering. These are only a few of the many similar records which attest the high degree of architectural skill already attained by these barbarians, whom some writers would have us believe to have been incapable of putting stone and mortar together so as to form a wall. But of the numerous examples of old English architecture still existing, the one most interesting, in some respects, as being unique of its kind, is of a much humbler character than those we have been describing. While the other churches of that period which have thus far successfully withstood the destroying touch of time are stone structures, this is a plain wooden building, and in fact is little more than a log-house. It is thus described by a gentleman who visited it some years ago: "The walls, which seem to be of oak or chesnut, are but six feet in height on the outside. They are not formed of half trees, but of trees that have had a portion of the centre, or heart, cut out, probably to furnish beams for the roof and sills. The slabs thus left were placed vertically on the sill, and the upper ends being roughly adzed off to a thin edge, are let into a groove in a piece of timber which ran the whole length of the building. The door-posts are of squared timber, and the doorway is only four feet five inches in height, by two feet and four inches in width. The outsides of all the trees are furrowed, to the depth of about an inch, into long stringy ridges by the decay of the softer parts of the timber, but these ridges are as hard as iron and of a colour approaching to ebony." During the middle ages a considerable addition was made to its length, and the covering of the roof has been renewed several times. Thus enlarged, it was still used for Divine worship a short time ago. It stands at Greenstead, is perhaps most plainly seen in the remaining monuments of ecclesiastical architecture, for the buildings of Wilfred and his contemporaries do not seem to have been surpassed by any of the later structures until we reach those of the beginning of the eleventh century, and the same manner of building seems to have prevailed with but slight changes for over four hundred years. The characteristic features of this style of architecture are walls bonded together by means of alternate uprights and horizontal stones, technically known as "long and short work," and frequently decorated on the outside with pilaster strips, massive round arches, and roundheaded doorways and windows; though in the earlier buildings the triangular or straightsided arches are very common. The towers are perhaps the most marked feature of the churches of this age. They are almost always tall, slender, and unbuttressed, presenting a nearly unbroken vertical outline, while their surfaces are diversified by upright strips and string courses, and they were probably crowned by conical roofs or low spires. As regards the interior arrangement, the Saxon churches would seem to have been planned upon the usual type of the Latin churches, "having a chancel, nave, and aisles, with their arcades and clerestory." The arches were, for the most part, faced with a slightly projecting flat rib, and the windows were frequently divided by a shaft or pillar, usually without a capital. The inner walls were often adorned with pictures on parchment, representing the miracles wrought by favourite saints, and the altars were decorated by English jet and ornaments of gold and silver. Peals of bells were not uncommon, and bell-founding seems to have been an art much practised by the monks. The organ is first mentioned about the year 700, in a poem by Adhelm, who describes it as being "a mighty instrument with innumerable pipes, blown by bellows, and enclosed in a gilded case, and far superior to all other instruments." We learn from Bæda that when Benedict Biscop built the stone monastery at Wearmouth, in 672, he "sent to France to fetch makers of glass, who at this time were unknown in England, that they might glaze the windows of the church, and of the cloisters and dining hall. This was done, and they came, and not only finished the work required, but also taught the English people their handicraft, which near Ongar, in Essex, and was originally built to serve as a shrine for the reception of the corpse of St. Edmund, on its return from London to Bury St. Edmunds, in the year 1013, more than eight centuries ago. The illuminated manuscripts which have come down to us prove beyond a doubt, that, at a period when pictorial art had sunk to its lowest ebb in other parts of Europe, the English had invented and carried to a high degree of perfection a style of art distinctly original in all its leading features. Afterwards this style was carried to the continent by English monks and missionaries, and, through their instrumentality, was introduced into the monasteries, and the schools founded by Charles the Great. It was characterized by the peculiar and intricate use of spiral patterns, interspersed with dots and lines and interlacings of knots running into heads of serpents and birds. Much of the drawing is of a bold and rich character, and the drapery of the figures is depicted with great spirit and freedom. In the drawings of the Lindisfarne manuscript the colours appear to-day as bright and fresh as when they were first laid on, in the seventh century. among their exports we find wool, tin, lead, iron, and goldsmith's work. In exchange their merchants brought from other countries, silks, gems, gold, drugs, wine, oil, and spices. King Alfred is said to have built ships, upon a new model of his own designing, which were larger, swifter, steadier, and stood higher on the water than those of the Danes. They appear to have been partly decked over and furnished with one mast and a square sail, but the oars were their main dependence, except when sailing before the wind. The age immediately succeeding the introduction of Christianity is full of names renowned for learning. Schools were founded in the cathedral cities, and treasures of Roman science and art were thrown open to eager and diligent students. Bæda, in his secluded cell at Jarrow, seems to have mastered the whole round of knowledge of his day. Among his writings we find treatises on music, physics, poetry, rhetoric, arithmetic, and grammar. The last labour of his life was the translation of the Gospel of St. John into the English tongue. Later on, King Alfred did much to encourage learning, and himself translated several works from the Latin into English. Considerable attention was paid to music. Teachers were sent for from abroad, and schools for instruction in the art were established in most of the monasteries. Nor was the study of medicine neglected; the works of the Greek and Latin writers on this subject were carefully studied, and some were translated into the vernacular. Though we may feel inclined to laugh at some of their prescriptions, yet much of the treatment is sound and wise, and in some surgical operations there is good reason for believing that anæsthetics were used to render the patient insensible to the infliction of pain. In the arts and handicrafts which minister more directly to the comforts and luxuries of life, the English workmen were well skilled. Their jewellers and goldsmiths stood high in the estimation of the metalworkers of the continent; and the specimens of their handiwork found in the ancient barrows fully sustain their reputation for delicacy of workmanship. Among their ornaments we find brooches of gold filagree-work set with garnets and rubies; earrings, bracelets, and buckles of gold, silver, bronze, and enamel, often elaborately wrought, and adorned with precious stones; necklaces of amber beads, and garnets set in gold. Drink- The limits of a magazine article have not ing cups of gold and silver are also occa- allowed much room for details, but, though sionally met with. It is from these barrows the subject is by no means exhausted, that most of our knowledge concerning the enough has been said to show that Enghousehold utensils of the time has been de-lishmen of the age preceding the Norman rived. Twisted glass, ale-cups, basins, bowls, and jugs of earthenware bear witness to their skill in the manufacture of pottery and glass ware. Commerce was carried on vigorously, and Conquest, far from being the ignorant race of THE NEW REFORMATION.* HRISTIANITY, since its foundation theological disputes existed on the vital tenets CHRISTIANITY, since fogation of which has been marked by peculiar historical developments of thought. For convenience we may divide these changes into three grand epochs : Ist. When the Roman Church assumed superiority over the other churches of Christendom. 2nd. When the Reformation occurred in the sixteenth century. 3rd. The Religious Revolution of the present time. Although it is the special purpose of the present paper to deal with the last of these movements, it will not be out of place to take a rapid glance at the two former. Under the patronage of the Emperor Constantine, the Roman Church, being situated at the capital of the Empire, naturally became the centre of the new religion, although the primates of Antioch, Alexandria, Carthage, and Constantinople, held independent Synods of the Bishops under their jurisdiction. Constantine, however, arrogated the right of the Emperor alone to summon great and extraordinary councils of the Church. The first of these assembled at Nice, A.D. 325. The result of the deliberations of that celebrated assembly is too wellknown to require mention here. The event fixes the date of our first great division, and marked the birth of a new power, which from that day to this has drained remorselessly the best blood of millions of human beings. The name of this evil power is Orthodoxy. At no time since the dispersion of the Apostles, according to Christian accounts, could the scattered bodies composing the followers of Christ be said to have been agreed on matters of faith. St. Paul himself tells us of his disputes with Peter and others as well fitted, at least, as himself to judge of essentials. Indeed, it may be said with truth, that from the very beginning the most subtle We are thus led to hazard the reflection that, had Christianity come a direct gift from God to all the world there would have been absolute peace and unity among the Churches, not unseemly "confoundings" of each other among Apostles, and wretched quarrels over the attributes of a Master they all professed to serve. always been so among Christian teachers. They never did and never will agree, and yet all of them are ready to persecute to the very death those who presume to question the truth of the doctrines about which they are everlastingly wrangling. It has At the time of its introduction into the various provinces of the Roman Empire, Christianity found itself involved in the wrecks of dissolving systems of thought. In each country it became tinged with the dominant hue of prevailing philosophies and superstitions. In nearly every case it became wedded in time to an older form of faith, and its offspring, thus begotten in deformity, entered with furious malignity into the religious faction fights which brought about the Council of Nice and the bloody persecutions that followed. Thus we find those gentle Christian sects, which had scarcely emerged from the hands of persecution, turning their swords upon each other for the extermination of the monsterHeresy. Uniformity of faith was secured, at least outwardly, by the Council of Nice. The consubstantialists, who afterwards assumed the naine of Catholics, carried the day by a majority of votes, fixing the character and attributes of the Almighty; as if a mere human assemblage of ignorant and violent sectaries could, in the eyes of any enlightened man, decide so momentous and august a principle by a show of hands. Yet this is what we are called upon to accept and believe under pain of eternal damnation in a material hell. Who is there with mind so darkened, with prejudice so crass, with heart so hard, with brain so soft, with all sense of reverence so benumbed, so divested of love of truth, so devoid of common-sense, as to believe such a thing can be a true interpre tation of the unknown Creative Power of the Universe. Gazing on the wonders of earth and heaven, the truly religious man shrinks with horror from such an impiety. The Roman Church triumphed in course of time it became allied to the secular power, and the long night of ages of intellectual desolation fell upon the Western World. We now come to the second division of our subject—the Protestant Reformation. Ancient civilization, submerged under the waves of monkish superstition, had completely lost its hold upon mankind. The Roman Church had carried to its legitimate conclusion the doctrine that the knowledge of Christ was the only learning worth having. Her priests ruthlessly destroyed or perverted the treasures of ancient culture, although they recently claim to have preserved them. It is, however, to the labours of sequestered scholars, who, in the general darkness of their time, devoted their lives to the preservation of the classics, that we owe all we possess to-day of ancient learning, philosophy, and literature. Nor must we forget to thank the Turks for unlocking the treasures of ancient literature hidden for eleven centuries in Constantinople. The crusades opened to many adventurous and inquisitive minds the stores of Oriental wisdom, and a knowledge not obtained from "clerks " began to be diffused throughout Europe. After this extraordinary movement had subsided, faint streaks of the dawning of a new day were to be discerned. The gloomy night of ecclesiasticism was passing away. The development of the human mind was no longer to be retarded either by a licentious priesthood or by an ignorant nobility. The age of gunpowder and printing commenced; immediately followed, as a natural sequence, that great struggle, by which the people sought to raise themselves above the grovelling tyranny of Romish superstition. There was a pretty general revival of letters. The Bible, translated and printed, passed into the hands of the people. In the efforts of many good men to obtain a higher spiritual life, different sects of protesting Christians arose. There were many excellent men, too, who fondly dreamed that the old Church itself could be purified and restored to primitive simplicity, even as there are those in our own day who think that the Church of England may be brought into unison with the times. Such, however, was not to be. The arrogance of the Papal See, combined with the political exigencies of the states of Europe, lent additional force to the rising wave of the Reformation, and Protestantism, under various designations, became an accomplished and enduring fact. It must be remembered, however, in treating of this period, that the Reformation was a purely religious one. It was founded on the teachings of the Bible as opposed to those of Rome. Science as science had little or nothing to do with it. The Reformation, however, possessed a deeper significance than a mere religious revival. While it emancipated secular princes from the power of the Pope, it gave birth to the idea of popular rights, and created a class, which, under the names of Nonconformists, Puritans, and Liberals, has ever been the foremost and uncompromising enemy of all abuses in Church and State. I do not wish by this to be understood as referring to any of the purely political parties now existing under our Constitution, but to that which a recent writer has characterized as "the spirit which prompts a man to repudiate any control of the State over his conscience, which leads him to think for himself, and take an independent position, regardless of the authority of the past or the fashion of the present, which teaches him to value liberty and to have infinite faith in it as the best palladium of truth." Having relieved themselves from the galling yoke of spiritual slavery, the people, as might naturally be expected, were for a while tossed about by many winds of doctrine; the right of private judgment having been conceded as the essence of Bible Christianity, they soon became divided into sectaries adhering to the different interpretations of what they considered the Sacred Writings. These views in time became consolidated into written creeds, and, from the ruined temple of Romanism, the various sects carried away whatever materials suited them for the construction of their own Churches. It was not to be expected in an age more remarkable for religious zeal than critical acumen, that sectarian creeds should be distinguished by breadth of sentiment or liberality of construction. On the contrary, it would have been impossible for those people, in their then stage of development, to have done otherwise than they did. They were anxious to preserve the truth, as they understood it, to their descendants, fearing, how justly more recent events have shown, the relapsing character of the State Church, especially allied as it was with kingly pretensions to "right divine." These creeds and confessions constituted the orthodoxy of dissent. As time progressed, these sects assumed increasing importance, in Great Britain principally, where they were mainly instrumental in bringing about the final overthrow of the Stuarts, and the establishment of religious toleration, at least among Protestants. To them England owes, in a great measure, her present constitution, while American freedom is the direct work of their hands. They aided the Anglican Church to defy the interference of Rome, and taught the people in turn to successfully resist prelacy. They stamped the character of their minds on the British race, allying, by a strange paradox, singular narrowness of faith with unbounded love of spiritual independence. They completed the Reformation of Luther, and educated the religious sentiments of the people, till these are to-day very nearly prepared to accept the new and pure religion of Science. We now come to the consideration of the last and most important part of our subject. After the grand principle of religious toleration had been conceded, the people, relieved from fruitless theological disputes, turned their attention to matters of essential importance. Physical Science was cultivated with a view towards the increase of human comfort and the acquisition of wealth. The discovery and application of hitherto unknown or undeveloped forces in nature, opened wide fields for the activity of man, and, as the pursuit of worldly objects became more engrossing, interest in questions of theology abated. To use an expressive modern phrase, "there was no money in them." Men followed, as a matter of course, in the practice (on Sundays) of the particular form of religious observances in which they had been educated. As an active and guiding principle of life, Christianity ceased to control the conduct of men. Maxims of business, wise saws of commerce, proverbs inculcating ways for getting on in the world, broadly at variance with the teachings of Christ, came into vogue. Thus a new creed, made up of scraps of worldly wisdom crystallized by experience, insensibly usurped that place in the heart of mankind which in former generations was garrisoned by dogmatic faith. The spirit of success dethroned the God of the theologians, and how to make money became the allabsorbing mystery of its worship. gion itself was enlisted in the service of the new deity, and men joined churches for the sake of the respectability such membership was supposed to confer, or from an idea that it would help them in their business. A few, no doubt, were actuated by more praiseworthy aspirations, but with the mass of people it was as has been stated. Under this new dispensation, the strange anomaly of fashionable churches arose, and many of the most distinctive teachings of Christ were conveniently allowed to sink into oblivion. Thus-as a writer in the Fortnightly points out--are not all Christians forbidden to go to law? Are not their women forbidden to plait their hair? Are not Christians forbidden to jest? to take judicial oaths? to re-i ceive interest on loans or even take back the principal? to be rich, or ask rich people to dinner? to receive an unorthodox person into their houses, or even wish him "God speed!" Where, we may ask in vain, is the Christian existing at the present day who lives up to these plain commands? It may be said that they are not in accordance with the ideas of the age and the necessities of life Granted, but, if so, what becomes of the whole system? The New Testament clearly shows that the founders of Christianity never intended to confer eclectic powers on its adherents. It was never permitted them to decide what doctrines they should receive, what reject. Certain rules of life were laid down by which they were to be known and governed. Now, Christianity, if of divine origin, must have been intended to suit all climes and peoples, since its gospel was preached to the Gentiles. If inspired by the same God who created the Universe, it would, like that Universe, be inflexible in its action, holding a corresponding position. in relation to moral phenomena to that held by heat and force in relation to inanimate nature. Manifestly modern Christianity does not do this, and proves its spurious character as a Divine institution by the inapplicability of its primitive teachings to all conditions of life. Some wise men have held that the soul requires supernatural consolation, something that will answer to the yearnings of the heart |