Not a few serious Russian writers ings of God for these; but whom God have been ashamed at such an argument chastens has a right to be treated being used. The very legends of your mercifully. This feeling of mercy is char country do not bear out your contention. acteristic of the Russian people, and yo Writers of Church history are against you, actually, in the face of the world, rol your judgment on the West of Europe is just this people of this noble trait in its character. as full of errors. According to you, its In your fanatical accusations you bitterly countries are plunged into grossest darkness, reproach your victims with filling Europe lightened only by the fires of the Inquisition with their lamentations." Dalton acres and such nights as that of the St. Bartholo- Pobedonoszeff of blackening the nobility and mew massacre. In the midst of this dark clergy of the Baltic Provinces. "In Christ's world Russia is the only bright spot. What name," he says, "who gives you any right to do you say would Europe have become if accuse them of high treason, and of exciting Russia had been the battle-field on which all the people against Russia and her Church these rival faiths had fought it out?" Pastor It is the old accusation against Christ uttered Dalton then takes up what is now going on: before Pilate.” He defies him to pr "What a shamelessly false picture you draw duce before all Europe any proofs i of the condition of the Baltic Provinces-and one single instance of their want of loyalty. that in the name of an Emperor who pretends "They have faithfully served in the Busin to make no difference betwixt the nation- army, and have bled for their country alities and religions of his subjects, and only but they do not boast of it. It seems thinks of their welfare. The very confidence natural thing for them to do, and from Petz placed in you by the Emperor should have the Great till the present day all made you feel it to be your duty to guard Emperors have admired their fidelity. I against a single inconsiderate expression, alone have dared to attack their hou but you make it a difficult task for the and loyalty, what they have always preached meekest to curb his indignation when he sees and taught in their schools. In which one so bigh placed heaping insult upon of their pulpits has the Gospel not ben insult on all the clergy of so important a part preached, and the duty of Christians to obey of the Empire, and that by means of most the powers that be. As to the schools i manifest falsehoods. You, in your safe the Baltic Provinces, Katkov (a great orator position, thus attack men that are gagged and writer of Moscow), has said: 'God ke who cannot print a single word in self- us from ever destroying the school syste defence! Perfection is nowhere to be of these provinces by measures worthy found. There may be fault to find. Vandals! We owe them a generation The pastors themselves acknowledge their young men perfectly inaccessible to th shortcomings, and look on these perse- accursed underground way of Nihilism.'” cutions-as Christians should-as chasten(To be continued.) CHELTENHAM CONFERENCE. THE Council earnestly request members and friends of the Evangelical Alliance, in parts of the country, to intimate as early as possible their intention to be present at the Annual Conference. Communications should be addressed to the Secretaries of the Alliance 7 Adam Street, Strand, London. The programme of speakers and subjects of addresses is now complete, and will be forwarded to any friend who may apply. CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED FROM JULY 20 TO AUGUST 19, 1889. THE all-absorbing subject of the last month has been the strike at the London Docks, which has not only brought about a paralysis of the shipping trade of London, but has brought into unwelcome prominence some of the unsettled problems of the great question of labour and capital. The sympathies of the public have been freely extended to the men, and large supplies from the Australian colonies have strengthened their hands in standing out for what they have at last won-sixpence an hour and a secured minimum of working time. Much credit is due to the Lord Mayor, Mr. Sydney Buxton, M.P., the Bishop of London, and Cardinal Manning, for the efforts they have made to bring about a settlement of the matter in dispute. The Cardinal, not slow to seize the opportunity, has taken a leading part in the work of pacification between employers and employed. He came early to the front, and has remained at his post to the end; while the Bishop of London was late in the field, and left it early in consequence of a misunderstanding as to a compact which it was hoped would have brought the dispute to an end. Representatives of Nonconformist churches have held meetings and expressed sympathy with the men, whose cause they warmly espouse. The general feeling now is one of great satisfaction at the cessation of the strike, and of the misery which it was causing in the homes of the men. Nevertheless, there are not wanting prophets of evil who say that the end of the strike is but the beginning of a conflict between labour and capital, which may have disastrous consequences before the rightful balance of power between the two forces is satisfactorily settled. The Scotch Episcopal Church has begun to revise its Canons and Communion office. Pending their ratification by a general Synod, the Bishops have addressed a letter to the Presbyters, giving in detail the changes proposed. That which will excite most interest is the alteration of the Prayer of Invocation, in which it was prayed that the Holy Spirit would sanctify the bread and cup that they 8 might "become" the body and blood of Christ. This is now altered to a prayer that they may "be" the body and blood of Christ, with an appended clause" that whosoever shall receive the same may be sanctified both in soul and body, and preserved unto everlasting life." This is no doubt a change for the better, as compared with an expression which the bishops own has been "a stumbling. block" and "which experience has shown to be liable to grave misunder standing;" but the amended form can hardly as yet be accounted scriptural, fr our Lord has not told us to pray that the sacramental bread and cup may either "be" or "become His body and blood. His words assert that they are such. It is to be feared that the figurative sense in which He manifestly intended His words to be taken, is one that sacerdotalism will never be willing to admit; for His words be so taken, sacerdotalism in one of its most prominent functions fil to the ground. A newspaper report of an incautious expression about the Virgin Mary, separated from its context, used by Dr. Fulton, an American Protestant lecture, at Brighton, has afforded the Bishop of Chichester an opportunity of writing » the Rev. J. G. Gregory, who took the chair at the lecture, a severe reproof fir countenancing what the Bishop treats as a denial of Scripture teaching as to Lord's incarnation. Unfortunately Mr. Gregory is away for his holiday, and m answer from him has as yet publicly appeared; but another Brighton clergyman, the Rev. W. T. McCormick, who also received a letter of reproof for having been present. has written in defence to assure his Lordship that he has been misinformed as to the nature of the lecturer's remarks, of whom, he says, "I can assure you he holds with as much tenacity as we do the grand fundamental doctrines that your hrd. ship supposes he has impugned-I never heard a word spoken by him in disparagement of the Virgin Mary, although he did express an opinion against the teaching of the Church of Rome as to her perpetual virginity." It seems & pity that the lecturer should have used language on such a subject at all liable be misunderstood, and perhaps a greater pity that the Bishop of the Dioces should have so readily misunderstood the language, and have charged three f his clergy with sympathizing with serious fundamental error, which they repudiate as much as the Bishop himself could possibly do. We have lately had from the mouth of the Bishop of Lincoln an asserin that the great question at issue at present is whether the sacerdotal character of the Christian ministry is or is not of God. The Bishop of Liverpool has also just given, in writing to the Record, a definition of what sacerdotalism is. "B sacerdotalism (writes Bishop Ryle), I mean that system of religious teaching which maintains that a clergyman is not merely a minister of God's Word and sacraments, but a sacrificing priest; that the Lord's Supper is not merely sacrament, but a sacrifice; that the Lord's table is a true altar; that there is real corporal presence of Christ in some ineffable way in the consecrated bread and wine, and not merely a spiritual presence in the hearts and souls of believing communicants." No intelligent Christian acquainted with his Bible could hesitate for a moment as to whether such a system as this is or is not of God. We regret that our French contemporary-Le Christianisme-takes exception to some of the views expressed by our correspondent in France. We are quite sure that the writer, who for more than thirty years has furnished us from month to month with such interesting letters from Paris, has no intention to do injustice to any of the churches, or to slight their work in any way; but only desires to give a faithful picture of what is being done for the advancement of the Gospel. If the new and aggressive organization of the Salvation Army seems to our correspondent to be more used of God for evangelistic work than the older and more orthodox churches, we cannot wonder at its occupying a prominent position in the record of what is taking place at present in France for the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom. This, however, is not intended as a slight to the churches, and we hope will not provoke their antipathy. The Salvation Army in our own land has stirred up many Christians who deplore its defects to imitate its zeal. We cannot see why it should not be so amongst the French churches. Cardinal Newman has discovered a new explanation of St. Paul's prophecy of the man of sin, in 2 Thess. ii. Protestant interpreters, it is well known, are divided between the historical fulfilment as seen in the Papacy, and the priesthood of which it is the head, assuming divine powers and exercising divine functions in the professing Church, and the futurist fulfilment which expects a literal man to claim divine honours in a hereafter-to-be-built temple of God in Jerusalem. But not even the latter of these views satisfies the Cardinal, although it is the one generally accepted by Romanists. He sees the prophecy fulfilled in the statue of Giordano Bruno, recently erected in Rome, of which he says: "I have learned that the enemy of mankind-the lawless one-has been made an object of worship in the holy city, agreeing with the very words of Scripture as used by St. Paul. (2 Thess. ii.)" How a statue set up, not even in a temple, but in a city, to a harmless though crackbrained philosopher who lived 300 years ago can be a fulfilment of the prophecy of the man of sin it is hard to understand. However wild the speculations of Bruno may have been, he was burnt at Rome by the Inquisition in the year A.D. 1600; and his notions of philosophy have long been out of date. His admirers at Rome may perpetuate his memory by erecting his statue; but how does this fulfil 2 Thess. ii. ? Our readers will find in another column a very interesting sketch of the life and work of the late lamented Professor Christlieb which has been kindly forwarded to us by Count Andrew Bernstorff. It fully recognizes the advantage which Dr. Christlieb gained by his residing in England at the time when the remarkable revival of 1859 was beginning to open the eyes of Christians to the importance of evangelizing the masses, and was teaching them to look for the power of the Holy Spirit to bless the Word, even though not spoken by ordained ministers. This led to the establishment in Germany of a similar system of evangelization, in which Dr. Christlieb took deep interest, and of which he may be considered to have been to no small extent the originator. There should be much prayer that a work hitherto so blessed may not be permitted to fail or flag through the loss which it has sustained in Professor Christlieb's death. The approaching Annual Conference of the Evangelical Alliance, to be held this year at Cheltenham-from the 22nd to the 24th of this month-will, we hope, be specially remembered in prayer by all Christians who are interested in the work of the Alliance, that preparation of the heart and of the lips may be given to all who are to speak, and that the great aim and object of the Alliancethe promotion of Christian union-may be furthered thereby. Our readers will find in another column a list of both speakers and subjects, but we must look above for blessing if it is to be vouchsafed. The Spirit of God is the power needed to make any conference a success, but He may be confidently expected to manifes: His presence and His power wherever and whenever that presence and power are sought in earnest and believing prayer. GOD'S TESTING WORK. (An Address at the Keswick Conference, by the Rev. HANDLEY G. C. MOULE, MA Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge.) "THE fire shall try every man's work of the Revised Version has it, somewhat ma what sort it is." (1 Cor. iii. 13.) clearly, "all thine alloy." The reference to a community or an individual that know and belongs to God, but into whose work service there has come something the compared to dross or alloy in metal. "dross" suggests to us that which is obviou repulsive, as well as being refuse; and "alloy" or "tin," those more specious ar more subtle ingredients of evil that enter inte a Christian's work and life—not the lantable inconsistencies so much as that m interior and hidden evil, of self-complacen and self-motives, which can plainly be covered when we use God's tests. "I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin." (Isaiah i. 25.) "I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries." (Psalm lxxxi. 14.) God never discourages the soul that for any real purpose comes to Him. His rebukes and chastenings of the believer are all "at home," within the safe doors which are red with the blood of sprinkling and of propitiation. As children convinced of the intention of the Father, let us listen to what He says, and welcome what He does. In the first of these passages we have a very solemn promise and prospect for the future, which refers impartially to every one of us. In the passage from Isaiah we have somewhat similar imagery, but in a different connexion. The Lord is there speaking, in the first instance, to His ancient Zion, and, therefore, also to the true Zion-the Israel of God. And as to the community, so it is to the individual; there is a wonderful solidarity between the Church and the member. Let us, therefore, take this as a message from the all-seeing, living, and loving Lord to each one who is of His true Israel: "I will turn my hand upon thee, and will purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin;" or, as Here we have a double fact of deepe solemnity and of most delightful encourage ment. And it is not, as in the case of the testing by fire, a prospect for the dim and mysterious future, but for the living an breathing present. It is something wh may take place, and may be taking place this hour, in the deepest and closest see But is there not also the most delightful e couragement in such a promise? Have not often tried, when unsuccessful in efir. to turn our own hands upon ourselves. order to do this work which here God und takes to do? We have tried to make clean sweep with our own indignation resolve against self? But here God metakes to do it Himself, and there is ne thing wonderfully cheering in the recollecti that it is a work which God pledges Hin to be intending to do, and prepared to If we asked Him to do it, it is a pr which we may be assured is in the line His own will and purpose, and in petition shall meet performance. Then let us remember that it is done only by His hand of power, but His w and tender hand. David said, in a time of great straits, that it was better to fall int the hand of the Lord than into the hand f man; and he was right. It is for purpose of blessing that we ask and welcome this disciplinary teaching of the Lord. What labyrinth it is on which God's hand is to be turned, and from which the dross and the alloy is to be burned. As Christian workers, |