the legislature in general, to take the whole question of subscription into their serious consideration. "It was observed," he said in conclusion, " of the oracle of Delphi, that during all the ages in which it commanded the real reverence of Greece, the place in which it was enshrined needed no walls for its defence. The awful grandeur of its natural situation, the majesty of its temple, were sufficient. Its fortifications, as useless as they were unseemly, were built only in that disastrous time when the ancient faith had decayed, and the oracle was forced to rely upon the arm of flesh, on its bulwarks of brick and stone, not on its own intrinsic sanctity. May God avert from us this omen! It is only in these later ages of the Church, and chiefly in the Protestant portions of Christendom, that subscriptions have been piled up to circumscribe our oracle and sanctuary. Let us show that we, in these later days, are willing to free ourselves from such unsightly barriers, which encumber, without defending, the truth that they enclose and hide. Let us show that we in our Reformed Church are not afraid to dispense with those artificial re

straints, which the Catholic Church, in ancient and as we think less enlightened times, scorned to call to its aid."

In the following year, 1863, mainly I suppose owing to Stanley's letter, a Royal Commission was issued for the purpose of examining fully into the subject. The result of their inquiry was the introduction of a Bill by Lord Granville in 1865, in which the old, precise, stringent form of subscription was completely set aside, and another declaration was substituted for it-that which I read as my text a declaration as bare and general as it was possible to be, consistently with the retention of any expression of assent at all.

And I cannot too strongly impress upon you the fact that this change was made distinctly for the purpose of broadening the Church. Mr Buxton, in his speech before the House of Commons, said "It was the express intention of the Commission to relax the extravagant stringency of the existing tests; in other words, to make it possible for men to minister at the altars of the Church, though they might dissent from some part of her

teaching. . . . All those phrases which indicated that the subscriber declared his acceptance of every dogma of the Church had been swept away; and this had been done expressly and of forethought. Instead of declaring his assent to all and everything the Prayer - book contained, a clergyman now only declared his assent to the Prayer-book itself, that is to say to the book as a whole, and his belief that the doctrine of the Church therein set forth was agreeable to the Word of God. He would not declare that the doctrines in the plural number, or that each and all of the doctrines, were agreeable to the Word of God, but only the doctrine. It was expressly and unanimously agreed by the Commission that the word doctrine should be used in the singular number, in order that it might be understood that it was the general teaching, and not every part and parcel of that teaching, to which assent was given." After its scope and purpose had been thus distinctly explained to them, the Bill was passed by both Houses of Parliament, and it is now the law of the land.

The next time therefore you are asked, as

foolish people are so fond of asking, why Broad Churchmen do not go out of the Church, you may give the simple but cogent reply, because of the Act of Parliament 28 & 29 Vict. c. 122, which was framed for the express purpose of keeping them in.

29

"So

The Church of England.

II.

THE LAITY.

many as intend to be partakers of the holy communion shall signify their names to the curate at least some time the day before. And if any of these be an open and notorious evil liver, or have done any wrong to his neighbours by word or deed, so that the congregation be thereby offended, the curate, having knowledge thereof, shall call him and advertise him that in any wise he presume not to come to the Lord's table until he hath openly declared himself to have truly repented and amended his former naughty life, that the congregation may thereby be satisfied which before were offended; and that he hath recompensed the parties to whom he hath done wrong, or at least declare himself to