five hundred regularly ordained clergymen, and, in addition to these, the number of divinity students, catechists, schoolmasters, and others employed or maintained by it, in whole or in part, is about eight hundred.* These are found in every British colony and in almost every heathen land, wherever a door has been opened to them for the preaching of the Gospel of Christ. From north to south, from east to farthest west; under the burning sun of Africa and amid the terrible snows and ice-blasts of Prince Rupert's Land; in the West Indies and the vast plains of Hindostan; in Borneo, Australia, New Zealand, Vancouver's Island - everywhere, they raise the Christian standard, preaching pardon and peace through the blood of the cross. Thus is that noble

Society doing the work of the Church, in accordance with the commission given by the Lord; thus it has been engaged for over one hundred and sixty years. To it our American Church owes its "first foundation and a long continuance of nursing care and protection." And as it was here, so has it been in the British Provinces near us. There, there are many stations which for a hundred years have received, and are yet receiving, the generous support of this Society. Assuredly then it can point to a history and a present work of unequalled extent and usefulness. Surely, without any, the least, disparagement of the noble Church Missionary Society and the Colonial Church and School Society (which are comparatively of very recent origin), it may be safely stated that the

*The operations of the Society may be yet more extensive; we have not seen a report for four years past.

great work of extending the Church in heathen lands has been performed chiefly by its agents.

The question then arises, What is the general character, what the tone of this venerable Society? How does it stand as regards the matter before us. Is it "Latitudinarian ?" is it even distinctively "Low Church?" Far from it. It has never taken any party position (it is too grand an association for that), yet on this, which is not a question of party, its posi tion is well known. It is eminently conservative. It has ever been decidedly Episcopalian in spirit, and it is so to-day.*

The very existence of the other societies above mentioned is plain proof that the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel was not all that even moderate Low Churchmen would desire. They founded others to share its work and its honors; but would this have been done if that Society were conducted on such principles as our Author ventures to assert ? It is just as far opposed to those principles (or rather

The decidedly Episcopal character of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel is shown by the code of "instructions for the Clergy employed" by it, drawn up in 1706, and still in use. We wish that space could be afforded for the whole code, so that its excellence might appear to all, but we cannot admit more than what bears directly upon our subject.

Article III. charges them to be fervent in prayer to God, to "reflect seriously on their ordination vows," and consider the account they are to render to the great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls at the last day." Article IV. charges them to acquaint themselves thoroughly with the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England, that they may approve themselves as genuine missionaries of this Church. Article V. requires them to study subjects of controversy, that they may be able to withstand those who are gainsayers; and Article XI. calls upon them to avoid all party names, and to preserve a Christian agreement and union one with another, as a body of brethren of one and the same Church, united under the SUPE RIOR EPISCOPAL ORDER."

Yet Mr. Goode and his followers are not ashamed to say that this Society rejects the doctrine of Episcopacy, and endorses Presbyterian ordination.

five hundred regularly ordained clergymen, and, in addition to these, the number of divinity students, catechists, schoolmasters, and others employed or maintained by it, in whole or in part, is about eight hundred.* These are found in every British colony and in almost every heathen land, wherever a door has been opened to them for the preaching of the Gospel of Christ. From north to south, from east to farthest west; under the burning sun of Africa and amid the terrible snows and ice-blasts of Prince Rupert's Land; in the West Indies and the vast plains of Hindostan; in Borneo, Australia, New Zealand, Vancouver's Island - everywhere, they raise the Christian standard, preaching pardon and peace through the blood of the cross. Thus is that noble

Society doing the work of the Church, in accordance with the commission given by the Lord; thus it has been engaged for over one hundred and sixty years. To it our American Church owes its "first foundation and a long continuance of nursing care and protection." And as it was here, so has it been in the British Provinces near us. There, there are many stations which for a hundred years have received, and are yet receiving, the generous support of this Society. Assuredly then it can point to a history and a present work of unequalled extent and usefulness. Surely, without any, the least, disparagement of the noble Church Missionary Society and the Colonial Church and School Society (which are comparatively of very recent origin), it may be safely stated that the

*The operations of the Society may be yet more extensive; we have not seen a report for four years past.

great work of extending the Church in heathen lands has been performed chiefly by its agents.

The question then arises, What is the general character, what the tone of this venerable Society? How does it stand as regards the matter before us. Is it “Latitudinarian ?" is it even distinctively "Low Church?" Far from it. It has never taken any party position (it is too grand an association for that), yet on this, which is not a question of party, its posi tion is well known. It is eminently conservative. It has ever been decidedly Episcopalian in spirit, and it is so to-day.*

The very existence of the other societies above mentioned is plain proof that the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel was not all that even moderate Low Churchmen would desire. They founded others to share its work and its honors; but would this have been done if that Society were conducted on such principles as our Author ventures to assert? It is just as far opposed to those principles (or rather

*The decidedly Episcopal character of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel is shown by the code of "instructions for the Clergy employed" by it, drawn up in 1706, and still in use. We wish that space could be afforded for the whole code, so that its excellence might appear to all, but we cannot admit more than what bears directly upon our subject.

Article III. charges them to be fervent in prayer to God, to ". reflect seriously on their ordination vows," and consider the account they are to render to the great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls at the last day." Article IV. charges them to acquaint themselves thoroughly with the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England, that they may approve themselves as genuine missionaries of this Church. Article V. requires them to study subjects of controversy, that they may be able to withstand those who are gainsayers; and Article XI. calls upon them to avoid all party names, and to preserve a Christian agreement and union one with another, as a body of brethren of one and the same Church, united under the SUPERIOR EPISCOPAL ORDER."

Yet Mr. Goode and his followers are not ashamed to say that this Society rejects the doctrine of Episcopacy, and endorses Presbyterian ordination.

of the Clergy of the English Church, and nineteentwentieths of its laity repudiate the doctrines of Episcopacy and Succession! How this knowledge was arrived at we are not informed. That it could, by any possibility, be true, is hard to understand, if we consider what we have heard, for the past twenty or thirty years, that the English Church was "rotten to the core," so filled with High Church leaven that it was the duty of "Evangelical" Churchmen to look for sympathy and co-operation among dissenters, rather than from its members! And besides, we have long been accustomed to the apologetic tone of all English "Low Church" journals and works, and every one knows that the members and admirers of the " Evangelical party" were rejoiced beyond measure, on account of the appointment, by the late Lord Palmerston, of some eight or nine Bishops, who, to some extent, sympathize with them. These facts militate rather strongly against Mr. Goode's assertion.

But there are others that meet it more directly still. We are able to put statistics in opposition to it. A prominent "Evangelical" Journal, some time ago, quoted as authority the Rev. Dr. Conybeare's classification of parties, and estimate of their numbers.*

We will refer to it then. The Rev. Doctor divides the Church into three parties or classes, each having its normal, its stagnant, and its exaggerated type. There are, in all, over seventeen thousand

This was first given in the Edinburgh Review, and afterwards published by the Author, in a Volume of Essays, on subjects connected with the Church.