And O what eager but reverential spectators, waiting for the words of grace and consolation, throng those walls sacred to the LORD for ever, so long as ground is firm and masonry endures; all within those sacred gates is beautiful, so ancient in usage, so perfect in form and decoration; and the triumphant voice of Praise, sounds with thrilling harmony through the noble space; and the lenten sighs fade softly away. One day in the year we dedicate to the blessed memory of the founder, whose self-abnegation and devotion were so perfect. The Book of Life was in his hands when he died, and his fingers were on these words-" Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." C. A. M., W. T CHURCH STATISTICS. IV. CHURCH BUILDING. WE propose to complete the brief review attempted in these pages of the condition and wants of the Church of England in respect to her domestic organisation, by a summary of the report lately issued by the "Incorporated Society for promoting the Enlargement, Building, and Repairing of Churches and Chapels in England and Wales." And we must begin with saying that it is a very disappointing report. It lacks in a very marked manner the energy and comprehensiveness of the two reports which we have lately reviewed, and we are not surprised therefore to find that it tells a tale of decreasing funds and discouraged subscribers.1 Nevertheless, the year 1868-1869, has been a very important one in the annals of Church building, owing 1 We may mention some instances of this discouragement. (1) For many years grants have been refused in all cases where it is not proposed to erect a reading-desk. (2) In the present Report there is a needlessly uncourteous reference to the Free and Open Church Movement. (3) Is not too much power given to Bishops? VOL. VI. (N. S.) ૨૨ in part to a special appeal put forth by the Society on the attainment of its fiftieth year. The result is indeed most unsatisfactory, only £8,000 having been received up to March, 1869, in addition to the ordinary income of the Society, which is miserably small. Other sums have no doubt yet to come in, which will probably raise the total to £10,000. The sum is indeed small, but as most of it probably will be expended on parishes where church feeling is very low, and where probably nothing would have been attempted without the bait, the effect produced will, in the end, be considerable. The society, moreover, is after all only one channel in which the liberality of Churchmen flows; but as in several dioceses a new increase of life is now to be expected, it is much to be desired that the funds of the Society should be largely reinforced in order to meet fresh applications. No effort is made in the Report to calculate what would be really needed in order to make our churches what they ought to be in number and in condition. But when it is mentioned that during the last year no single application was made from the important Diocese of Manchester, where the population so rapidly increases and where the people are full of energy, it will be seen that a great work yet remains to be done, but which cannot now be done while such Bishops as the present occupant of the See of Manchester are imposed upon the Church. Each year happily furnishes more and more instances of Churches built by individual founders, but no agency can reach the mass of common-place parishes save the existence of a fund which invites applications from any and all who need help. Societies in this way, it cannot be doubted, fulfil a very useful, if not the highest kind of function, for the loss of which no other kind of machinery could compensate; and when it is remembered that the population of this country has almost trebled itself since the beginning of the century, and that large masses of people are wont to migrate from time to time according to the exigences of trade or commerce, it is plain that this fund must be of the utmost value to the Church. Church people are so accustomed to find all their wants provided for them, that they are very slow to learn the duty of habitual almsgiving, and yet the enjoyment of endowments, so far from making us unmindful of offering of our substance to GOD, ought to impose on every one who profits by this a special obligation to continue the same spirit of liberality for the benefit of others, and when this spirit is thoroughly roused, then, and not till then, may societies be done away with. Meanwhile they should be administered with zeal and freedom from unnecessary trammels. Reviews and Notices. We have much pleasure in strongly recommending to the notice of our readers a publication which has just been brought out by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, entitled The Animal World, (Partridge and Co., London.) It appears monthly, price 2d., and consists of sixteen pages of excellent matter, in the shape of stories, anecdotes, articles, correspondence, &c., relating to the helpless portion of GoD's creation, which is so entirely at the mercy of man, and it is further enriched with clever and appropriate illustrations. The object of this periodical is, briefly, to inculcate and enforce the Divine sentence, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy," and we believe that it may be productive of great good, and that some such agency for this purpose is greatly required, for we do not hesitate to say that the proper treatment of dumb animals is not only a most necessary branch of education, but one which is culpably neglected among us in this country. How much, for instance, is it a commonly received axiom that it is the nature of boys to be cruel, and that it is of no use to attempt to teach them otherwise. The chief mistake seems to consist in the fact that the illusage of animals is not looked upon in its true light as a heinous sin against the GOD of Love and Mercy Who created them as well as ourselves. The publication before us may do much to induce a truer estimate of our responsibilities in this respect, and we heartily hope it will find its way into every family as well as into every school in the kingdom. The two first numbers are thoroughly well adapted to their beneficent purpose. The Dean of Ely (Bishop Designate of Carlisle) publishes yet another translation of The Imitation of Christ (Deighton, Bell and Co., Cambridge.) The language into which it has been rendered is remarkably pure and correct, but the chief peculiarity of this edition is that Dr. Goodwin has paraphrased a few expressions which he thought hardly adapted to members of the English Church. He has done his work in this respect discreetly, and has carefully marked every such passage, that the reader may be in no doubt as to the genuineness of the other portions and possibly some persons may consider this arrangement an advantage; but for ourselves, we must own to an insurmountable preference for the genuine words of the grand old author, and we hope Dr. Goodwin may some day give us the benefit of his admirable translation in an edition in which these changes would not be reproduced. Correspondence. The Editor is not responsible for the opinions of the Correspondents. To the Editor of the Churchman's Companion. Answers. THE TITLE "FATHER." SIR,-It can scarcely be needful to remind any of your readers that two texts of the New Testament cannot possibly contradict one another. The words of S. Paul, written by the inspiration of the Divine Spirit, cannot possibly be "opposed," in any degree, to the utterances of his, no less than our, Incarnate GOD.-Whatever the difficulty be it can only be apparent; it may be deeper than we can, at present, fathom, but it cannot amount to contradiction. At most it is only a mountain which simple Faith in a crucified SAVIOUR will remove. Taking then S. Paul's words (1 Cor. iv. 15) as quoted by MYRA, In exactly and literally as they stand, how shall we interpret the words of his "Master?" (S. Matth. xxiii. 9.) Taken in their simple absolute literal meaning they would seem to forbid our calling our earthly parent "Father."-Let us then consider the whole passage with the intention of discovering our LORD's real meaning. verses 8 and 10, He is condemning a practice then common among His Jewish contemporaries, as alas! it is now amongst those who are called by His Name. The Jews were then divided not only into chief sects but also into opposing schools or parties, their Rabbis making themselves "masters," (or rather "Leaders," or "Guides," καθηγηταί,) and setting forth their own private opinions to be received by their followers, as though they had the same authority as the commands of the Law of Moses. Such is the primary meaning of these verses; and between them our LORD says, "And call not [any one] your father upon the earth, for your FATHER is one, which is in heaven." Do not these words recall to our minds the opening address in that Prayer which the same LORD Himself taught us? Does not He use the word "Father" here in the same sense as it was used by the last of the Prophets? (Mal. i. 6, ii. 10.) And so, surely, He is here speaking, by implication at least, against the practice of those Jews, in His own day, who did not teach the people to look up to GOD, but drew their reverence away from GOD to themselves (Wordsworth in loc. ;) and He would teach us that as we receive our real life, in a special manner, from GOD, so we may not permit any one on earth to come between us and Him. This is one truth-but there is another not less a truth, because, though not prominently enforced here, it is enforced in other passages of Holy Scripture and specially of the New Testament,-and that truth is respect for authority. And CHRIST cannot here condemn the use of such a title, as a title of respect, either to our father after the flesh or to him who has "begotten us in the Gospel," for as S. Paul calls Onesimus "my son,” and S. Timothy "my own son in the faith," ," "dearly beloved son,' and S. Titus "mine own son after the common faith,"-and others, "my little children" (Gal. iv. 19,) and as S. Peter speaks of "Marcus my son," and the Beloved Disciple continually calls those to whom he writes, "my little children," "little children," it cannot be wrong, since S. Paul uses the correlative term in a spiritual sense-that we should use it too when we speak of our "spiritual pastors." It may be un-English, or unadvisable, or it may become simple "cant," but simply (putting these considerations aside) wrong per se it cannot be. Our LORD'S words are directed not against such a practice as this, but against an undue seeking on the part of any "spiritual pastors' of earthly rule and power, and taking delight in that for its own sake, as is plain from verses 11 and 12. It is no reply to the above quotations to say that S. Paul sometimes speaks of his converts as "brethren," (1 Thess. v. 12,) and of their clergy (verse 14) as "brethren" also; rather this would seem, if anything, to imply that there were some among them to whom he was a "father" in a special, spiritual, sense, which he was not as applied to others. A reference to the "Catena Aurea" will show (in loco) how S. Jerome solved your correspondent's difficulty, or she may read some very beautiful thoughts on the verse in "Devotional Helps for the Seasons," Tuesday, 19th week after Trinity.-Yours, &c., H. SIR,-A careful consideration of the context at once throws light upon this injunction of our Blessed LORD, "Call no man Father," &c. He had been assailed by the different opposing Jewish sectarians, and with Almighty wisdom had both confounded and silenced them. At once He avails Himself of this opportunity to give His disciples most important instruction, and to denounce those who instead of being Rabbis, Teachers, Leaders, and Fathers of the people for GOD's sake only, and to advance His glory, had but in view their own aggrandisement and the diffusion of their own peculiar tenets. This is the abuse which the LORD here condemns; and this is the abuse too for which the Corinthian Church fell under the condemnation of S. Paul, for that some of |