There was no one near, but God heard him. He bowed his face in his hand, and the warm sun kissed his brow, and the soft breeze played in his hair as he lapsed into the sweet slumber of the blest, to wake in his Father's house. See, a lark has shot heavenwards and rains down its wild bursts of melody, its touching théodicée upon the earth!

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CHAPTER VIII.

AN HISTORICAL EPISODE.

GREAT events crowd upon us and claim our attention, but we must hurry on. Cromwell has reigned, not as a king, but as a prince and a prophet. A new kingdom has been set up in our land, and old elements, long crushed beneath the weight of authority and drugged into inactivity by the poppied administrations of superstition, have burst forth into the vigour of youth and the newness of spiritual life. Pax queritur bello was the motto of his life, as of his coins, and well did it prove itself an oracular truth, a very message from heaven. He was no natural man, and he ruled in no natural way. It was not Fate that made him what he was, but Faith-faith in a divine Ruler of the

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universe, in His love, goodness, mercy, and power faith in himself, as receiving his commission from Him, and faith in man, as the offspring and image of Him, to be brought through the changeful whirl of time, the crash of dynasties and the tumult of nations, safe and pure, and Godlike, to a state in which kings and nobles will be but men, and every man may be, in Christ, a priest, a prophet, and a king.

It was the old old war of Eternity with Time, in which the issue is always the same although the circumstances and the characters are different. It secured both a seedtime and a harvest. For a while men were once more free to do good and worship righteously. Religion was not patronised but honoured, not made a matter of highbreeding and etiquette, but of solemn steadfast belief, to be wrought out into the living lineaments of human life. It did not hover about rank and grandeur like a native coruscation or a special aureole, but it penetrated dark hearts and dark homes, like the holy light of day, which is not the less divine because it is so common. Numerous sects

arose, as they will when once a strong faith holds men in its grasp, and they have neither the calmness nor the capacity to view many truths or many aspects.

Baptists were not idle.

They walked,

River

talked, befriended, and baptised.

banks were the scene of imposing ceremonies and holy vows. In quiet country villages churches were formed, ministers appointed, messengers delegated, and sanctuaries built. Everywhere there was new life-vivid, glancing, impetuous, and persua sive. From being so long unbelieving and forbidden to think for themselves, men became full of fervour, fanaticism, and curious doctrine. In the consciousness of a new and rightful power, and in the sweet thrills of its unhindered exercise, they were ready to believe anything, prove anything, do anything, and dare anything. Argumentations were held with wise men, witty men, reverent men, and irreverent men, wheresoever, whensoever, and howsoever, they could. country was full of scholastici vagantes-if any Baptists could ever be called wandering scholars who argued before magistrates,

The

nobles, and common folk, proved Scripture truths by theses and antitheses, established baptism by syllogisms, and attacked the quinqueticular points, as they were then called, of the Calvinistic brethren of their own persuasion, by logical distinctions, metaphysical facts, and gravelling arguments. They printed books, wrote pamphlets, with titles such as "Baby Baptism mere Babyism," and refuted those who condemned them as schismatics, soul-sleepers, and house-creepers, who called baptism, with Baxter, plain murder and a breach of the sixth and seventh commandments, who styled liberty of conscience the last heresy of hell, and toleration

a city of refuge in men's consciences for the devil to fly to." In fine, they came to themselves, arrived at a complete philosophical and religious consciousness, and feeling their power, importance, and scriptural authority, they waxed valiant, scornful, almost hierarchical, boasting that the words of Daniel, many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased, were fulfilled in their own lives and labours.

These procedures were very necessary.