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is a reality in every heart that loves the Saviour, though hindered much in outward manifestation, and often hindered by the very contrivances for giving it expression. It is more a matter of personal culture than of formal arrangement, of the inward spirit than of outward accommodations, and therefore is capable of being increased by whatever degree we grow into union with our Head and drink of the fulness of his love. There is no way of promoting Christian union so sure, so satisfactory, so scriptural, as simply to realize its existence as the complement of personal union with Christ, and to cultivate the faculty of discerning the spirit of Christ, under whatever form, and even through the intricacies of perverse logic and bad theology. Said a venerable father of another Church, "Come and keep with me the holy days of my Church, to show the world that we are one." "Nay, father, I like not holy days, but love all holy men; love you, for your life and works. We already show that we are one in faith by observing the Lord's Supper, that commemorates his death, and the Lord's day, that commemorates his resurrection; let us show that we are one in spirit by speaking kindly one of another and helping one another, whether we pray freely or by book, and preach in English, German, or Choctaw." Union comes not through uniformity. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty :" but let brotherly love continue, till the world shall say, "Behold, how these Christians love one another."

The grand resource of the Church against Rationalism lies in the Power of a Holy Life consecrated to the good of man in the love of God. The practical fruits of Christianity in the character of its professors and in society at large, are a permanent and an ever accumulating evidence of its divine origin and spirit. Men believe that which they see; and the test "By their fruits ye shall know them," is applicable to systems of faith as well as to personal professions of piety. Here Christianity ought to challenge comparison with any and all other systems; yea, it should rise above comparison, in the resplendence of holiness in its professors. This the Master himself enjoined. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." This too was the apostolic injuction. "Dearly

beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles; that whereas they speak against you as evil doers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation; for so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." This was a great argument with the primitive advocates of Christianity. Because Christians refused to worship the gods of the pagans, they were accused of impiety. They answered by an appeal to their lives. Says Athenagoras, "among us you may find unlettered men, craftsmen, and old women, though they cannot by words bring defence to our religion, yet adorn it by their moral principles, for they study not fineness of words, but practice the solidity of virtue; when struck, they strike not again; they persecute not those who rob them; they are charitable to such as ask of them; and love their neighbors as themselves.

"Could we then exercise such purity of life, if we did not believe there was a God who presides over mankind? No, certainly; but being thoroughly convinced that we shall one day give an account of our lives and actions to the great Creator of us and of all the world, we choose such a gentle, meek, and generally despised method of life. Shall they who say of this life, 'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die,' shall they be thought religious, and to have any regard for God? But we who despise this present life as of little and short value, and are led by this only, to know God and his Word, what the unity of the Son with the Father, and what the communion of the Father with the Son; what the Holy Ghost; what is the unity of these three; what the distinction of them who are one, the Spirit, the Son, and the Father; we who maintain that the life which succeeds this is greater than can be expressed in words, which is prepared for those who keep themselves unpolluted from all wickedness; we who have such a benevolence for all mankind as not only to love our friends but our enemies shall we who are such, and lead such a life that we may escape a condemnation to come, be thought to live wickedly?"

In an age when sensuality was wrought into all forms of literature and art, was blazoned shamelessly in the decorations of private houses and enshrined in the temples of the gods, the contrast of a chaste and godly conversation in the Christian community witnessed for the redemptive and renovating power of the gospel. The exhortations of Apostles at once testify of this contrast, and urge that it be made emphatic. "Forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind, for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin-that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God;"this is the principle of Unity with Christ, unity in self-renunciation, in hatred of sin, in dying to the world, in living unto God. "For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries; wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess, if not speaking evil of you;" the life of the Christian is in such contrast with his former self, such contrast with a worldly, sensual, self-seeking manner of life, that he would feel it as a rebuke; they may carp at it, but they must admit its power;-and when it is further seen that this spirit of self-renunciation is not asceticism, that it has no tinge of gloom or bitterness, and no conceit of self-righteousness, but is self-denial for the good of others, then do men own the reality and the power of the Gospel. Church must conquer unbelief by holy lives and blessed deeds; by an embodiment of Christ-ready unto every good word and work; giving the Gospel to the poor, caring for them that are in sorrow, doing all things possible for the elevation of our common humanity.

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Then, with Reason to advocate the claims of God, and Revelation to assert his authority, with the united testimony of the Church to the faith in Jesus, with the spirit of holy Love, and with a zeal for suffering, dying men that never flags and and never yields, the Church shall live down the power of unbelief, and win back the apostolic day when mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.

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ARTICLE VI.-RUSKIN'S NEW LECTURES ON ART.

Lectures on Art. Delivered before the University of Oxford, in Hilary Term, 1870. By JOHN RUSKIN, M. A., Honorary Student of Christ Church, Slade Professor of Fine Art. New York: John Wiley & Son. 1870. 12mo. pp. 202.

KEENNESS of insight, aided by the pure atmosphere and sweep of view which a generous culture gives, and a rich imagination combined with clearness and grace of verbal expression, give to Ruskin's writings deservedly their high place in the literature of the day. Living British authorship shows no superior in the charms of diction, or in the freshness, vigor, and suggestiveness of thought. A special commendation of his writings to a youthful mind, aspiring to high and true culture, is the practical spirit which animates and characterizes what he says. His conceptions of fine art are in the true spirit of all high culture; and his observations and criticisms are serviceable in every department of æsthetic training. Whether his desire be hint and impulse in the fashioning of manners or of character generally, or in the study of any special art-of discourse, of oratory or of poetry-equally as of painting or architecture, the reader will not rise from the perusal of his works with the feeling that they contain nothing for him. He can hardly fail to catch a new inspiration of thought and generous culture.

These seven lectures, delivered in January, 1870, on his entering upon the duties of his new professorship in Oxford University, rank, perhaps, higher than any others of his published works in the richness and value of their teachings serviceable to true culture. The first lecture is Inaugural; the three following are general, treating severally of the Relations of Art to Religion, to Morality, and to Use; and the three closing lectures are specially designed to lead his classes

in their training in art by instructions in Line, Light, and Color.

In his Inaugural, he takes occasion to hail the new era in education, introduced by the founding of a professorship in Fine Art in each of the three great universities of England. In this step, he thinks, is signaled a vital change in the national mind respecting the principles on which education should be conducted, and the ranks of society to which it should extend. Instead of the discipline by the study of abstract branches of literature and philosophy, is now substituted a discipline by means of the study of what is to be of chief practical advantage in after life. And, besides, an option of studies to suit personal dispositions is now allowed instead of the fixed uniform course heretofore prescribed in common for all. He is careful however to emphasize the opinion that the object of university instruction should be not, primarily, attainment, but discipline ;-not apprenticeship to a trade or advancement to a profession, but to make "gentlemen and scholars."

We are sorry to see cropping out here a narrow insularity of sentiment, a little characteristic of British manners, as he commends to gentle England to aim at an ideal of national life which shall admit none of the ignoble occupations, but shall depute "to less fortunate and more covetous (?) races" all mechanical operations that are debasing in their tendency. It would seem that he restricts to Englishmen his application of "the law of noble life," in another place, given by him as summed up in two of Pope's lines which, he says, "are the most complete, the most concise, and the most lofty expression of moral temper existing in English words:"

"Never elated, when one man's oppressed,

Never dejected, while another's blessed."

This insular narrowness and partiality of view appears elsewhere in his antipathy to all mechanical forces, to all mechanical processes which save human labor and compete with manual skill. In the same spirit he condemns the use of iron in

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