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belief was so completely overthrown by Origen that it did not visibly revive until the time of the Reformation, and still more remarkable that it found one of its latest and ablest exponents in Dr. Priestley.

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Luther, in his impetuous zeal for the overthrow of Popery, denied at first the immortality of the soul, because he considered the belief in its existence in an intermediate state favored the abuses of the Romish purgatory. This idea, however, so horrified his followers that he spoke of the same question in a very vague manner at a later period of his life. Calvin taught that the souls of all the elect were in a state of felicity after death, † but "if," said he, "any one of my antagonists should still raise an outcry as to what will become of the sons of perdition, that is nothing to me. I only reply for the faithful." Our own Reformer, William Tyndale, to whom we owe the splendid diction of the English Authorised Version of the Bible, took Luther's view. Sir Thomas More in his dialogue having charged Luther with the heresy of holding that "All souls lie still and sleep till domèsday," Tyndale defended them; but the idea was held to be so utterly wrong that four years afterwards he was forced to retract it. A revulsion of feeling had by this time taken place, and in 1552 a decisive step was taken by the English Reformers, against the doctrine that man becomes totally unconscious at death. The 40th Article of the Church of England in the reign of Edward VI. was framed to this effect:

"They who say that the souls of such as depart hence, do sleep, being without all sense, feeling and perceiving, until the day of judgement, or affirm that the souls die with the bodies, and at the last day shall be raised up, with the same, do utterly dissent from the right belief, declared unto us in the Holy Scriptures."

But in Queen Elizabeth's time, when the Articles of the Church were re-settled, the 40th Article was dropped. Still, in the Burial Service of the Church there is a beautiful passage declaring that "The souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are with God in joy and felicity." It is probable also that few members of the Church of England, in repeating every Sunday the Apostles Creed, are aware that they are stating their belief in the two regions of the Intermediate State described in the parable before us. They speak of the state in which the rich man lift up his eyes, when they say "I believe that He (Jesus Christ) descended into hell (Hades)." They own to the existence of the state called Abraham's bosom or Paradise, where Lazarus was comforted, when they say "I believe in the Communion of Saints."

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I would add an extract from Bishop Sherlock in connection with the doctrine of the Intermediate State and Purgatory. He says:

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2. "There are some, who, observing that mankind shall not be till the day of judgement, conclude that there is no intermediate that the soul sleeps with the body till the day of judgement.

A very foolish and unphilosophical opinion, for we may as reasonably think that the soul dies as that it sleeps in a state of separation. If the soul be a spiritual substance distinct from the body, it may live and act without it; and it is as easy and reasonable to defend the mortality of the soul as its sleeping; for if the soul must sleep when it is separated from the body, it must sleep for ever, if it never be re-united to the body again-that it must live and die with the body; for such a sleep as this is not merely an image of death, but death itself. But from what I have now discoursed it appears, that though there be a great distance between death and judgement yet the soul does live and act, is happy or miserable in the meantime."

3." This notion does very great service also against Popery; for it gives an account of a Middle State without Purgatory. This has greatly imposed upon unlearned men, that the advocates of Popery have proved from the ancient Fathers that they owned a Middle State, which was neither Heaven nor Hell, and then presently conclude that this must be Purgatory. Now, it is very true, the ancient Christians did own a Middle State between Death and Judgment, which was neither Heaven nor Hell, but yet never dreamt of a Popish Purgatory. They believed bad men were in a state of punishment as soon as they left their bodies, but not in Hell; and that good men were in a state of rest and happiness, but not in Heaven. But they never thought of a place of torment to expiate the temporal punishment due to sin, when the eternal punishment is remitted-which is the Popish Purgatory, and the most barbarous representation of the Christian religion, though the most profitable, too, to the Church of Rome that ever was invented."

One more inference from this famous parable and I have done. If mistakes have been made by Judaising Christians as to the spiritual existence of man after death, is it not likely that mistakes have also been made as to the place where man is to be judged? According to the traditions of Jewish dotage, the spirits of the departed were to resume their bodies, and to be judged in the valley of Jehoshaphat. This was derived from a concrete rendering of Joel III., v. 11, 12. But Jehoshaphat simply means "The Lord hath judged;" in verse 14 it is called "The valley of (strict) decision," and no sane person would expect this prophetic rhapsody to be literally fulfilled in a small valley near Jerusalem. The momentous fact is that in the New Testament the scene of judgment is laid where the souls of the departed of all nations are gathered. Has the Christian world then been deceiving itself with concrete expectations, as the Jews did in regard to the coming of Messiah? This inquiry goes beyond the scope of the parable, but it is a necessary inference from its teaching. The essential points are that man goes direct from this world, at death of the body, into a spiritual state of existence in a substantial spiritual body, that state being happy or otherwise, according to his inward character.

JOT.

LINES SUGGESTED IN SAINTBURY CHURCHYARD,

GLOUCESTERSHIRE.

FROM this old church, the hills among,

Is borne afar the sacred song,
Echoed by plaintive rocks along;
For Western voices, sadly sweet,
In cadence soft the chant repeat,
And voiceful choir, and woodland calm
Utter the same adoring psalm.

From fragile flower, and stately tree,
From silent vale, and mountain free,
Down-rushing stream, and dewy lea,
And from the wood in leafy pride,
Bowering the mountain's western side
To Him unceasing anthems rise,
Whose glory fills the earth and skies.

The choral notes in silence die,
As fade the sunbeams from the sky
In shade of cloud slow wandering by.
Anon, while far the shadows flee
Followed by light along the lea,
The sun bursts forth, and pours a flood
Of golden splendour through the wood.

There timid creatures haunt the shade,
And stir the tall ferns down the glade;
And flowers in azure robes arrayed
Look patient from their leafy screen,
Where singing flows the brook between
The tangled stems, and all the bank
Is rife with plants and grasses dank.

Once, years ago, this place was gay

With Spring's fresh dower; but hopes decay;
And hearts grow cold; and fade away
Youth's glorious visions; nathless still
The sacred Muses haunt the hill,
And wave the their tresses on the air,

And smile amid the flowerets fair.

Here are we far from noises rude,

How restful is the solitude!
How suited to the pensive mood!
Tranced silence holds the earth in thrall;
Her stilly reign unbroken all,
Save by the whirr of lonely wings,
Or babbling of the distant springs.

Meet spot wherein to rest from toil
And carking care; the mortal coil

To quit, nor wake with pain to moil;

To sleep where flowers and grasses grow,

Where fresh rains fall, and glad winds blow.

Fond thought! What recks the unconscious head Of pillow soft, or stony bed?

Not aye so peaceful was this scene,

For wondrous changes here have been.

Erst foaming, gleaming, blue and green,

Hence league on league, waste, wild, and wide,

Old ocean with his refluent tide,

Sounding his mighty monotone,
Rolled 'neath the all-beholding sun.

This is an ancient cemetry;

The dead 'mongst older dead do lie.
Their dirges moaned by earth, sea, sky;
Their myriad forms together tumbled,
While deep and far the earthquake rumbled;
Here ancient worlds were buried deep
Ages ere man was born to weep.

What gradual change again shall creep,
What wild commotion swiftly sweep,
Across these hills and valleys deep;
It matters not; for we shall lie,
And slumber all unconsciously,
Though lulled by sound of rushing wave,
Or rocked by earthquake in our grave.

Is this creation's goal and doom,
Successive burial, tomb on tomb,
A dreamless sleep, unending gloom?
But who unerring can reveal
The secret which the rocks conceal?
The stony pages earthquake-tossed,
The mystic records, marred or lost.

This place of death with sorrows rife
Speaketh of comfort, and of life,

Of joy for woe, brows crowned from strife.
So leave us yet the ancient faith,

That seeth not the end in death;
The ancient faith which shall be young,
When younger creeds shall want a tongue.
"I am the Resurrection and

The life "so yon stone-the tuneful band
Again are chanting :-"In His hand
Are all the corners of the earth."
This faith which is of heavenly birth,
All steadfast-eyed, and even-pulsed,
Beholds rent rock, and world convulsed;
And standeth firm, and bright with hope,
Though shaken all the starry cope.

COTTESWOLDE.

FREE AND FAIR TRADE.

"As an abstract theory the doctrine of free trade seems to be universally true; but as a question of practicability the protective system seems to be indispensable." GARFIELD.

THE continued and apparently continuous depression in trade and agriculture, combined with the hostile tariffs proposed by France, has at last brought us round to a survey of our position with the other markets of the world, and has instituted not only a searching enquiry into the causes of our loss of trade, but has also made us look around for some means of recovering our position as the first market in the world. And in this search of a means to an end men of all political creeds have come to question in their minds whether our present system of free trade is one which acts beneficially or the reverse. Some estimate of the hold which the discussion of this subject as opposed to reciprocity. has obtained upon the public, may be gathered not only from the action which the Cobden Club deem it advisable to take to defend the freetrade theory, in issuing pamphlets, etc., but from the fact that whereas but a year or two back a protectionist was hardly allowed to be possessed of the seven senses, debate upon the subject is now tolerated

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