moon is attracted no less than the apple; and that the tendency to fall earthwards, produced in it by this attraction, is one of the factors determining its course. Whenever we compare phenomena-no matter how distant they may be from each other in time and space, no matter how diverse they may at first sight appear-we now always expect to find in them an underlying unity of thought and purpose and mode of working; and sooner or later our expectations are fulfilled. The infinite variety of nature has been summed up by science in a single word -Evolution.

And what has been done in the sphere of physical science is being accomplished, though more slowly, in the sphere of religion. Here too there is infinite variety,—a variety which at first sight seems quite incompatible with unity. We find worship conducted with the most gorgeous ritual, and we find also worship characterised by the baldest simplicity. We find elaborate liturgies, extempore prayer, and voiceless communion with the Unseen. We find a professed acquaintance with all the purposes of the

Deity, and we find altars erected "to the unknown God." We find men frequenting several times a day the ministry of the clergy, and we find others who declare they are helped more by the ministry of Nature. Yet underlying all this diversity the thinker discovers a single instinct, the desire to do honour to Him who is regarded as the impersonation of perfect goodness. All these worshippers, differing so much superficially, are nevertheless members one of another; they are all included in "the general assembly and church of the first-born." "In every nation he that worketh righteousness is accepted." The infinite variety of religious thought and observance may all be summed up in that one word-Righteousness.

The Church of Christ is essentially and necessarily a broad church. Broad? That is a poor word. It is wide-reaching as the Infinite. It is a unity; for all its members are bound together by their common love of righteousness. But it admits of infinite diversity. My chief business in life is to explain and enforce this lesson. When men have learned it, there will

be no more sects; no more religious, or rather irreligious, persecutions; diversity will remain, but discord will have vanished; all who love righteousness will love one another; religious communities will perceive that they are not separate and antagonistic bodies, but parts of the selfsame organism; and the Churches of the world will become-in a sense quite different from that in which the words can now be applied to them the Churches of our Lord

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and of His Christ.

13

The Church of England.

I.

,

THE CLERGY.

A. B., do solemnly make the following declar

ation. I assent to the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion and to the Book of Common Prayer, and of the ordering of bishops, priests and deacons. I believe the doctrine of the united Church of England and Ireland, as therein set forth, to be agreeable to the Word of God; and in public prayer and administration of the sacraments, I will use the form in the said book prescribed, and none other, except so far as shall be ordered by lawful authority."-28 & 29 Vict. c. 122.

That is the form of subscription which, since 1865, has been required from beneficed clergy

men of the Church of England. The form which had been in use for two centuries previously ran thus: "I, A. B., do hereby declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and everything prescribed in and by the book entitled the Book of Common Prayer and Administrations of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church according to the use of the Church of England, together with the Psalter or Psalms of David, appointed as they are to be said or sung in churches, and the form or manner of making, ordering and consecrating of bishops, priests, and deacons."

The change to which I wish to-day specially to call your attention is this: instead of "unfeigned assent and consent to all and everything contained in the Book of Common Prayer," which was required in 1662, there was substituted in 1865 a declaration of belief, that "the doctrine of the Church of England as contained in the Prayer-book is not contrary to the Word of God." I am going to explain to you the meaning of this change, and the various considerations which led to it.