be careless of adaptation.

There is a tide of

Christian song rushing in upon us; we cannot thrust it back. The God who taught David to touch his harp with power Divine, has raised up in our day poets and musicians whose rare gifts we cannot spurn, and our service must grow in animation and responsive beauty, until, we may devoutly trust, the artistic song of the few hired singers will be known no more among us.

We must get down among the masses; it may need fraternities, or deacons of inferior qualifications, or lay-readers, or division of the services. Let us be dissatisfied until we find out how to do it. But never, we may hope and believe, will we, even for so great a good, sacrifice the Ancient Faith, or reject the Ancient Discipline.

LETTER II.

THE CHURCH'S SELF-SCRUTINY.

"There is much need: for not as yet
Are we in shelter or repose;

The Holy house is still beset

With leaguer of stern foes:

Wild thoughts within, bad men without,

All evil spirits round about,

Are banded in unblest device

To spoil Love's earthly paradise."

-Christian Year.

You have called my attention to the fact that there has come a change over the mood of the Church. You intimate that a certain self-reproach, amounting almost to self-distrust, is characteristic of our dear mother, if we may interpret her mind by the voice of living pastors and doctors. You ask me, If she has lost confidence in herself, how shall she claim the confidence of others? If her own eyes are clouded, how shall she lead the blind?

But is this spirit of self-scrutiny indeed an evil?

May we not rather find in it cause for profoundest gratitude?

We can both remember the time when the charge most frequently brought against us by those without was arrogance. They said that we were wonderfully well-satisfied with ourselves, and could discern no goodness outside of our own pale. They said that we were foes to progress, and had no larger thought than the routine of "Dearly Beloved Brethren," from one year's end to another.

These charges were not altogether groundless. In many places where the Church once had full sway, we have suffered the hearts of the people to be insensibly stolen away from us; and one's spirit is very heavy sometimes as he stands in old churches, once crowded with worshippers and communicants, but now almost deserted. We in America lounged into the missionary field after it was pre-occupied by others. We seemed to be contented with our numerical inferiority; and in our controversial books, as in our aggressive measures, there was an absence of that winning tenderness, that yearning over men's souls, which are necessary to make argument and appeal efficacious.

But our failures have not been altogether our fault. The beginning of this century found us shattered and broken. Religious teachers with

out theological learning multiplied on every side, while a ministry such as we require could not easily be recruited. What a prejudice there was against prelacy, ceremonial, and tradition! Our first effort was the struggle for self-preservation. Our attitude was almost one of deprecationPray, let us alone; there is not so much harm in us, after all.”

In the good providence of God we have grown and strengthened; and with our growth has come a larger view of our responsibility, an enhanced estimate of the treasures committed to our trust, and an earnest desire to make full proof of our ministry.

The appointment of the Memorial Commission in the year 1853 was a notable incident in our history. True, no marked practical results grew out of it, but this does not detract from its significance. The memorialists suggested that we were not doing the work in the land which we ought to do. They urged especially that we were not doing what might be reasonably expected of us in promoting Christian unity, in evangelizing the masses, and in resisting the spread of false doctrine.

The House of Bishops was not insensible to these representations. Through a commission of their body, they intimated that they desired to hear

the truth, whatever it might be. They invited the freest criticism of both friends and rivals. The published volume which contains a summary of the correspondence, might well have as its motto, in behalf of the Church, "Not as though I had already attained or were already perfect.” This feeling has not been arrested. There is a disposition to avow deficiencies, and to re-adjust our self-estimate; to sit in judgment upon our ecclesiastical systems and our practical workings; to discover the weak places in our harness, and to grind dulled weapons to a keener edge. When we commune with each other in earnest discourse, whether it be the fathers of the Church in council, or ministers and earnest laymen in fireside conversation, our talk flows naturally in this direction. We seek to know the truth about ourselves; we are not reluctant to acknowledge the good that really is in those systems which we most dislike.

Of course there are some individuals who carry this feeling into extravagance. They imagine that there is a fatal defect somewhere, and would revolutionize everything. We have been too narrow in our Christian sympathies, say some, and they would level all partition-walls. Discipline is too much decayed, say others, and they would strip personal religion of its elasticity and