IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 
 IIIIM 
 
 1.8 
 
 
 1-25 1.4 1.6 
 
 
 ■• 6" 
 
 ► 
 
 "/ 
 
 <^ 
 
 <^. 
 
 /} 
 
 "% ;> 
 
 
 /a 
 
 V 
 
 /A 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 Corporation 
 
 33 WEST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, N.Y. 14S80 
 
 (716) 873-4503 
 
 €S 
 
 I'V 
 
 :\ 
 
 ,v 
 
 \ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 o^ 
 
 4 
 
 ^*> 
 
 «? 
 
 -(f 
 
 m 
 

 CIHM/ICMH 
 
 Microfiche 
 
 Series. 
 
 CIHIVI/ICMH 
 Collection de 
 microfiches. 
 
 Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 
 
Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques 
 
 The Institute has attempted to obtain the best 
 original copy available for filming. Features of this 
 copy which may be bibliographically unique, 
 which may alter any of the images in the 
 reproduction, or which may significantly change 
 the usual method of filming, are checked below. 
 
 L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire 
 qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Les details 
 de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-dtre uniques du 
 point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier 
 une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une 
 modification dans la mdthode normale de filmage 
 sont indiqu6s ci-dessous. 
 
 □ Coloured covers/ 
 Couverture de couleur 
 
 □ Coloured pages/ 
 Pages de couleur 
 
 □ Covers damaged/ 
 Couverture endommagde 
 
 □ Covers restored and/or laminated/ 
 Couverture restaur6e et/ou pelliculie 
 
 □ Cover title missing/ 
 Le titre de couverture manque 
 
 □ Coloured maps/ 
 Cartes g6ographiques en couleur 
 
 D 
 D 
 □ 
 
 Pages damaged/ 
 Pages endommagies 
 
 Pages restored and/or laminated/ 
 Pages restaur^es et/ou pellicul^es 
 
 Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ 
 Pages d^colorees, tachet^es ou piquees 
 
 Pages detached/ 
 Pages ditachdes 
 
 □ Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ 
 Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) 
 
 n 
 
 Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ 
 Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur 
 
 I 1 Showthrough/ 
 I if Transparence 
 
 □ Quality of print varies/ 
 Qualitd inigale de I'impression 
 
 D 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 Bound with other material/ 
 Relii avec d'autres documents 
 
 Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion 
 along interior margin/ 
 
 La reliure serree peut causer de I'ombre ou de la 
 distortion le l^ng de la marge int^rieure 
 
 Blank leaves added during restoration may 
 appear within the text. Whenever possible, these 
 have been omitted from filming/ 
 II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajout^es 
 lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, 
 mais, lorsque cela Atait possible, ces pages n'ont 
 pas ixi film6es. 
 
 D 
 D 
 D 
 
 Includes supplementary material/ 
 Comprend du matiriel supplimentaire 
 
 Only edition available/ 
 Seule Edition disponible 
 
 Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata 
 slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to 
 ensure the best possible image/ 
 Les pages totalement ou partieliement 
 obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, 
 etc., ont 6ti filmies A nouveau de fa^on it 
 obtenir la meilleure image possible. 
 
 D 
 
 Additional comments:/ 
 Commen^aires suppldmentaires: 
 
 This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ 
 
 Ce document est filme au taux de reduction ind.qu* ci-dessous. 
 
 IPX 14X 18X ax 
 
 I I I I I I I I I Ul I I I 
 
 26X 
 
 30X 
 
 12X 
 
 16X 
 
 20X 
 
 24X 
 
 28X 
 
 32X 
 
The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks 
 to the generosity of: 
 
 National Library of Canada 
 
 L'exemplaire film6 fut reproduit grdce A la 
 gin^rosit^ de: 
 
 Bibliothdque nationaie du Canada 
 
 The images appearing here are the best quality 
 possible considering the condition and legibility 
 of the original copy and in keeping with the 
 filming contract specifications. 
 
 Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed 
 beginning with the front cover and ending on 
 the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- 
 sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All 
 other original copies are filmed beginning on the 
 first page with a printed or illustrated impres- 
 sion, and ending on the last page with a printed 
 or illustrated impression. 
 
 The last recorded frame on each microfiche 
 shall contain the symbol — »- (meaning "CON- 
 TINUED "), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), 
 whichever applies. 
 
 Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at 
 different reduction ratios. Those too large to be 
 entirely included in one exposure are filmed 
 beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to 
 right and top to bottom, as many frames as 
 required. The following diagrams illustrate the 
 method: 
 
 Les images suivantes ont 6ti reproduites avec le 
 plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et 
 de la nettetd de l'exemplaire filmd, et en 
 conformity avec les conditions du contrat de 
 filmage. 
 
 Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en 
 papier est imprimde sont filmds en commenpant 
 par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la 
 derniire page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second 
 plat, selon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires 
 originaux sont filmis en commen^ant par la 
 premiere page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par 
 la dernidre page qui comporte une telle 
 empreinte. 
 
 Un des symboles suivants apparaftra sur la 
 dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le 
 cas: le symbols — ► signifie "A SUIVRE ", le 
 symbols V signifie "FIN ". 
 
 Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre 
 filmis A des taux de reduction diffdrents. 
 Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre 
 reproduit en un seul cliche, il est film6 A partir 
 de I'angle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche A droite, 
 et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre 
 d'images ntcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants 
 illustrent la m6thode. 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
[ 
 
 C A N A D A 
 BttUOill^Lt NATIONALE 
 
 TRUTHS RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 A MEMORIAL OF EASTER. 1865. 
 
 BV 
 
 THE REV. DR. SCADDING. 
 
 Toronto : Roixo & Adam, 1865. 
 
 TORONTO : 
 
 REPRINTED BY THE COPP, CLARK COMPANY, LIMITED, 
 
 67 & 69 Coi.BORNE Street. 
 
 1S9S. 
 
6v qa 5 3 
 c, Q^ 
 
TO 
 
 WILLIAM SHELTON, D.D., 
 
 RECTOR OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, BUFFALO, 
 
 THIS SMALL WORK IS INSCRIBED, 
 
 IN TOKEN OF 
 
 05 D FRIENDSHIP AND UNABATED AFFECTION > 
 
 AND AS 
 AN ENDURING WELCOME-HOME, 
 AFTER HIS 
 VISIT TO THE HOLY PLACES OF THE EAST. 
 
i 
 
I 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The little tractate which I here present to the reader, originated m two 
 public discourses; one. a Lenten lecture in the Cathedral Church of St James, 
 and the other an Easter Address to the congregation of my own Church, 
 ..The Holy Trinity." Toronto. Having, from circumstances beyond my con- 
 trol, an extra amount of leisure this summer. I have devoted some of U to the 
 re-arranging of the matter contained in these discourses, and the brmgmg of U 
 into the shape in which it here appears. Little is being don. locally amongst 
 us so far as I am aware, to counteract the destructive theories, m regard to 
 received beliefs, which at the present moment are so rife, and wh.ch come 
 inevitably before the notice of young and old, learned and unlearned The 
 effect of the thoughts embodied in the following pages will be. U is hoped, 
 with those who may happen to peruse them, to render in some degree harm- 
 less the perilous speculations referred to. 
 
 H. S. 
 
 Delatre Lodge, Niagara-on-the-Lake. 
 June, 1865. 
 
 The brief record of "Truth's Resurrections." made by me in ^865, havmg 
 become out of print, I reproduce it for the sake of friends and collectors. The 
 date of the reprint, it will be observed, is 1898. a date which .n future tunes 
 will be readily recalled as being that of the year when Queen Victoria entered 
 on the eighth decade of her life and the seventh of her reign ; as the year . 
 when the remains of Gladstone, the statesman, after lying in state for two days 
 at Westminster Hall, were solemnly entombed in Westminster Abbey to be 
 followed in due time by a monument also at the public expense ; as the year 
 when the United States boldly attempted to relieve Spain by force of arms of 
 its troublesome dependency Cuba-incidents, all of them, having an itnportant 
 bearing on the advancement of civilisation and the general ascendency of Truth. 
 
 H. S. 
 
 6 Trinity Square, 
 June, iSr.a. 
 
ANALYSIS. 
 
 >I I'KK-CHRISTIAN I'ERiOD.-i . Of Divine Interpositions, Immediate and Mediate. 
 ■ 2. Such Interpositions Asserted to Have Happened. 3- Such Interpositions 
 Not Impr<,hable. 4- Primary Religious Truths Likely to he Kevea^d. 
 c Primeval Truth Soon .Suffers Krom Accretion and Incrustation 6. Ob- 
 scuration Inseparable From the Farly Processes of Oral and NN ritten 
 Tradition. 7. Religious Truths, in an Obscured Condition, Conveyed 
 Eastward, Sout'iward, and Westward. 8. Only One Trustworthy Collec^ o 
 of Early Written Records. 9- Some Attempts to Regain Lost Iruth 
 Among «n-Sernitic Races. .O. Of Messengers ^^ ^^'^^^ J"^'"'^ 
 Human. II. Why Such Missions Are, and Yet Should Not He, D.s. 
 credited. 12. Agencies in Nature, Usually Invisible, Sometimes Hecome 
 Visible. 13. Universal Witness Borne to the Fact of Such Missions. 
 II CHRISTIAN Pkr.od. - .. Reasserliou and Amplification of Primeval 
 ■ Religious Truth. 2. The Opening of This Period a New Coirmienc.ng 
 Point. 3. The Time Proper for a Re-beginning. 4. M^" ^ ^^"''^Vm 
 sponsibility Increased. 5- The Plan Pursued Intrinsically C red. We 
 6 The Execution of the Plan an Historic Fact. 7- Summaries of Ma te.s 
 Taught at This Period Historically Preserved. 8. These Summaries Like 
 the ^>rimeval Deposit, Suffer From Accretions. 9- Jo.nt Ffforts to Ke- 
 move Accretions. .0. The Witness of Individuals. ... N .cissitudes of 
 the Renewed Deposit Since the Division Into East and West 12 l-flect 
 of Tridentine Decrees in (German Empire. .3. Intluence o the Society 
 of Loyola Until Its Abolition. .4. FtTect of the Re-cstabhshment of 
 the Society of Loyola. .5. ''he Tolerance of Free (;overnments 
 Adroitly Made Use of. .6. Under This .Egis, Strong Instuut.oiis for the 
 Perpetuation of Corrupted Truth are Set Up. .7- And the Dogmas of 
 Corrupted Truth are Steadily Urged. .8. Written and Printed Scnptu e, 
 HowJver, a Standing Test. .9. Written and Printed Scripture Earnc^y 
 Studied in the Present Age. 20. Mistakes in Iheology Discovered. Unity 
 Thereby Promoted. 2.. Unity on all Hands Increasingly l^esired. 22^ 
 Reunion Suggested by Coincidences in .865; (.) in ^^^^^-" 7, ^;^^ g^;' 
 West. 23. (2) In Relation to Christian and Jew. 24. Oood H.day, .865. 
 Further Remarkable. 25. Conclusion. 
 
TRUTH'S RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 I. PRE-CHRISTIAN PERIOD. 
 
 I. Of Divine Interpositions, Immediate and AJediate. 
 
 That God, being Almighty, may act on nny occasion, directly, without the 
 intervention of an inferior agent or second cause, v < nust all feel to be a necessary 
 truth. Also, that He should, when He so willeth, a ' Mirough inferior agents, and 
 by the means of second causes, is likewise in pes feot harmony with our human 
 reason. 
 
 The human mind reflects tb^ Divine, albeit on h scale immeasurably small, 
 just because it is an emanation from the Divine mind ; jnst because it was originally 
 a miniature image of tlie Divine mird. Hence iuiia:ri polity, as it has been every- 
 where developed, is a shadow, also on an imneasurably small scale, of the Divine. 
 
 In all large schemes of government on earth, the .Supreme power can, at any 
 instant, if it be expedient and needful so to do, ace directly ; can cau.ic ils imme- 
 diate self to be felt, in a very brief sp.ace of time. Lut ordinarily, it is through 
 officials, througli inferior instruments operating under express and well-understood 
 authority, that the will t)f the .Supreme power is accomplished. 
 
 2. Such Interpositions Asserted to Have Happened, 
 
 The books of the Old and New Testaments contain announcements of two 
 special Di'dne interpositions, immediate and direct, each followed by interventions 
 not immediate, but conducted by ministers, natural and supernatural. 
 
 The first immediate Divine act, after the Creation, was to impart to the race 
 of man a system of religious truth, of religious faith and worship, adapted to it in 
 .ts infancy and youth. 
 
 The second special and marked, immediate Divine act, was to impart to the 
 human race a system of religious truth and worship, adapted to it in a condition 
 more advanced, more mature — a systeui of belief and worship that should suffice 
 for it in the highest degree of advancement of which it is capable. 
 
 After each of the marked special Divine acts, there are announcements of 
 secondary, ministerial workings, by inferior instruments and through mediate causes, 
 generally for the purpose of keeping alive a knowledge of the system of religious 
 truth, the imparting of which was the object of the greater, the immediate and 
 direct Divine acts. 
 
 These two sets of Divin ; acts, mefliate and immediate, make up the subject- 
 matter of the Old and New 'I estaments respectively. 
 
 1 
 
truth's resurrections. 
 
 3. Such Interpositions Not Improbable. 
 
 When we realize to ourselves, calmly, a Creator-God — supreme — existing 
 above— apart from — exterior to — the mighty aggregate of the products of His own 
 will, we cannot, on the principles of thought and belief which govern us in our 
 ordinary affairs, have difficulty in believing, in cordially accepting, announcements 
 of interpositions on His part, as well by Himself personally, as by His agents 
 instrumentally, in the affairs of this or any other province of His august, universal 
 empire. 
 
 If, to meet a want in beings whom He had Himself constituted to feel the 
 want. He should in some way make known t^ them truths in regard to Himself, 
 to His essence — to His own designs and purposes in relation to them, which, out 
 of their own consciousness, and through experience, they could never by any possi- 
 bility acquire, — it seems to be in every way consonant with the promptings of right 
 reason within us, to welcome whatever indications, whatever proofs, of the fact 
 may be presented. 
 
 If even, in order to make His will more fully known to beings composed of a 
 spiritual and corporeal nature, He should at some time, in some ineffable way, 
 assume for a period the flesh and form of man, and convey in human language to 
 the human reason some of the decrees of His own Divine Reason, it surely is a 
 proceeding not inconceivable by our minds, especially also, should it be done 
 gently, unexcitingly, — in a manner to leave reasonable man still accountable, still 
 with the choice of hearing or forbearing. 
 
 Nay further : if in the execution of His mission of good-will and in infinite 
 condescension to the human race, it should prove to have been His pleasure or 
 His determination, for the better accomplishment of His purpose, to permit the 
 opposition of unconscious men to His will as the supreme KeasoJi, to proceed so 
 far as to occasion the violent destruction of the perishable human form which for 
 the object in view he had assumed — should even this happen — although it is what 
 our imagination perhaps, all the preceding circumstances of the case being consid- 
 ered, could scarcely have conceived, — yet it is not such an event as that we must 
 discredit it, knowing as we do how many merely human victims have fallen in 
 struggles for truth and righteousness, according to the testimony of ordinary 
 history. 
 
 And again : when we bear in mind — when we calmly realize — Who it was 
 that thus so wonderfully wrought in the aiffairs of men — Who it was that thus per- 
 mitted the blinded will of man to work itself out to such an extreme — we are not 
 to deem it a thing incredible— but rather a thing readily to be believed, — that a 
 restoration to the earthly life should take place — a visible, manifest restoration for 
 a certain time, — for the two-fold purpose of jiroving to all future ages, first, that a 
 manifest lighting down of the Divine arm — an incarnation of God here visibly on 
 earth — had taken place ; and, secondly, that it was possible, physically and 
 morally, for a human organization, inhabited by a spirit allied to the Divine spirit, 
 to rise to life again, after that cessation of activity which mortals call death, 
 
TRUTH u RBSURRECT10H8. 
 
 4. Primary Religious Truths Likely to be Revealed. 
 
 It seems a thing in harmony with our reason to believe that, at the beginning, 
 there was supernaturally committed to the first human beings a deposit of Truth, 
 pure and simple, in regard to their origin ; their relation to — their consequent 
 duty to — God their Father ; their relation to, and consequent duty to, all things, 
 animate and inanimate, around them. Without doubt, — of this primeval deposit 
 we have repetitions in such declarations as — "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful 
 and gracious, long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth ; keeping mercy 
 for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, and that will by no means 
 spare the guilty ; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon 
 the children's children unto the third and to the fourth generation ; " in the Mosaic 
 sacrifices; in the Decalogue itself; and in the "Promise" more and more 
 distinctly renewed from time to time in after ages. 
 
 Such communications of Truth from without would seem to have been needed, 
 because, as was said before, neither the suggestions of human consciousness nor the 
 teachings of experience could lead to certain conclusions on such subjects {}). 
 
 Such a deposit of Truth, supernaturally committed to the first human beings, 
 would be a sacred trust, the faithful keeping of which, in theory and practice, 
 would be a discipline, a means of mental and spiritual and even bodily training, 
 such as none of the kinds of knowledge to be gained by experience could afford. 
 
 5. Primeval Truth Soon Suffers from Accretion and Incrustation, 
 
 But among the many wrong tendencies to which man's nature shows itself to 
 be subject, there is one having a special bearing on this primeval deposit which 
 was very early developed — which has continued to be developed, generation after 
 generation, from the time of the first human beings unto this day. The tendency 
 referred to is the one which induces them to overlay pure and simple Truth, — to 
 overwhelm it with words, to dir-sipate the attention of the earnest spirit of man 
 amongst a multitude of terms under which the deposited Truth is sought to be 
 expressed or guarded. 
 
 For defence, as they have supposed, — for illustration, for proper honour and 
 reverence, men speedily built up, upon and around the original deposit committed 
 to them, walls reaching unto heaven — towers— pyramids — which in the end proved 
 sepulchres, beneath which Truth was buried out of sight. 
 
 Kad there been no subsequent, special Providential acts, immediate or 
 mediate, — had there nexer been despatched from heaven messengers, visible or 
 invisible, to shake the earth from time to time, and remove from Truth the 
 ponderous weights under which it was well-nigh crushed, men would utterly have 
 lost the boon which was their most important possession. 
 
 The rising again from the tomb of Him who came to bear witness to the 
 Truth, and who Himself was the Truth— the Impersonation — the Oracle— of 
 Truth — was a type ( f that which, in minor degree, again and again hapjiened to 
 the primeval deposit, 
 
% TRUTH S RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 6. Obscuration Inseparable From the Early Processes of Oral and Written 
 
 Tradition. 
 
 As long as the knowledge of God, and the moral law resulting therefrom, 
 ■were preserved by oral tradition only, — handed on from one to another by word of 
 mouth, — the likeIihoo<l of obscuration by additions and diminutions was. great. 
 The imperfection of human language and of human conception rendered variations 
 in the terms of the tradition under such conditions unavoidable. 
 
 When at length by means of picture-writing the first human effort was made 
 to record deeds and ideas, then the very symbols used in the process gradually 
 became sources of myths and superstitions. Birds and beasts and creeping things, 
 sculptured or painted on tablets of stone, or on the surfaces of living rock — repre- 
 sentations of the sun and moon and stars — representations of princes and warriors, 
 and their exploits — all became, in the course of time, objects of religious regard in 
 their literal and visible forms ; interpreted, not as originally intended, namely as 
 rude records of thought and fact — but as allegoric signs, whence might be deduced 
 notions the most extravagant, unworthy of man and of God (*). 
 
 7. Religious Truths, in an Obscured Condition, Conveyed Eastward, Southward 
 
 and Westward. 
 
 The family of the human race is at length broken up into parts by the influence 
 of various events and catastrophes. The several portions of it carry along with 
 them, in the different directions of their dispersal, the primitive Truth in the con- 
 dition of soundness or unsoundness in which it was at the time of separation. 
 "With this deposit in their hands, in a certain sense religiously guarded, they 
 descended eastward by the great river-courses to the shores of the ocean ; and 
 from thence passed across by the stepping stones of the isles to the south-eastern 
 and eastern continents. 
 
 What the primeval Truth became in India, Hither and Further, — what in 
 Australia, what in China, what in Japan, what in the two Americas, and on the 
 Isthmus which unites them, we know from the reports of travellers and mission- 
 aries, and from tangible records still existing in temple-structures, altar-mounds, 
 pictured-rocks and sculptured monoliths. 
 
 Following the portions of the race that ti •welled westward, descending down 
 the slopes towards the Persian Gulf and Red Sea, — down the slopes towards the 
 Caspian, and then up the corresponding ascents along the river-courses and through 
 the passes of the mountains westward into Europe, till we arrive at the remote 
 inlets and bays of the Atlantic, and at the islands, towards which, as being the 
 home of our forefathers, our hearts are ever turning, we find everywhere, among 
 the most ancient popular traditions, relics of the primitive Truth, transformed, 
 disfigured in innumerable ways, in accordance with the history and native char- 
 acter of the races that, age after age, succeeded one another. 
 
TRUTHS RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 8. Only One Trustworthy Collection oj Early Written Records. 
 
 We have, however, trustworthy written records of only one grand line of 
 succession in the family of man — the Semitic — the Abrahamic. This, in the 
 providence of God, has preserved to us, either incidentally or directly, the primi- 
 tive deposit of religious Truth. And the same record which preserves it, preserves 
 also the action of the majority of men in regard to it. It shows — what we have 
 already stated — that a tendency exists ever to overwhelm and bury the precious 
 deposit. It shows that had there not been, since the original Gift, repeated inter- 
 positions, generally by agencies secondary, this Truth would have perished from 
 off the earth. This sure record contains a history of these interpositions. We 
 have early accounts of " sons of God," as contradistinguished from "sons of men," 
 showing the struggle which had begun between the system of Truth, and a prin- 
 ciple of life and action antagonistic to it. We have accounts of special and 
 particular preachers of righteousness, providentially raised up to bear witness to 
 the pure and simple primitive Truth, amidst generations of men that appeared to 
 be departing more and more widely from it. We have memorials, brief and few, 
 of an Abel, of a Seth, of an Enoch— son of Jared, of a Noah ('). We have memo- 
 rials, increasingly copious as we descend in time, of an Abraham, of a Jacob, of a 
 Moses ; memorials of a series of judges, of a series of kings and prophets ; — all in 
 their day and generation prompted to lift off, if so it might be, the dense stones 
 and mighty superstructures which were ever being piled, like a ponderous tomb, 
 on Truth. 
 
 9. Some Attempts to Regain Lost Truth Among un-Semitic Races. 
 
 We have hints, indeed, in the traditions of other races throughout the earth, 
 that occasionally there have appeared amongst them reformers — restorers in some 
 degree of such relics of primeval Truth as they still carried about with them. 
 These personages possibly kept some of the heathen races from sinking as low in 
 the human scale as they otherwise might have done. 
 
 Among tribes outside the line of succession particularly described m the only 
 certain records, we have glimpses of a Melchisedec, of a Job, of a Balaam. Of 
 Ishmael, even, we read that — " God was with the lad, and he grew and dwelt in 
 the wilderness ;" and of him, it was divinely declared, "a great nation" was to 
 be made. And of Esau it was said, " Thy dwelling shall be the fullness of the 
 earth and of the dew of heaven from abo\e ; " expressions implying that for these, 
 and the descendants of these, a portion of the Divine regard was reserved by 
 which, doubtless, not all among them would fail to i)rorit. 
 
 10. Of Messengers of Truth, Other Than Human. 
 
 Mingled with the accounts of preachers of righteousness raised up in the ages 
 all along, to clear away the dead weights laid so repeatedly on Truth, frequent 
 notices are found of Divine interpositions by agencies not so directly human, 
 although in certain instances, not distinguishable, at least for a time, from human 
 
() 
 
 truth's RE8UBRECTION8. 
 
 agency. At the first appearance of these messengers from another sphere, these 
 express deputies of God, they were occasionally, as we shall remember, not 
 recognized as lieing any other than human speakers and human agents, although 
 the result proved, without a doubt, that there had been a peculiar, an express 
 intervention of God. 
 
 And when, as at "the burning bush," the intervention was not, at the 
 moment, under the appearance of a human form, the impression sometimes was, 
 that it was a natural phenomenon, however wonderful. 
 
 II. IVAy Suck Missions Are, atid Yet Should Not Be, Discredited. 
 
 One reason why some men are inclined to discredit interventions from a higher 
 sphere by secon^'ary ministries like these, is this — they make stumbling blocks of 
 the representations of poets and artists, who have attempted by word-pictures, or 
 by material colour and substance, to convey to the minds of their fellow-men their 
 conceptions of angelic beings. These conceptions have been often so fantastic and 
 extravagant that they have shocked rather than assisted the human imagination. 
 But when we divest ourselves of these sensuous images, and realize to ourselves 
 only the forces, subtile, immeasurable, incalculable, which all enlightened philo- 
 sophers acknowledge to exist at the disposal of God everywhere, throughout the 
 great universe of things, we then have no difficulty in receiving, in believing fully, 
 the appearances which are recorded as extraordinary interventions on the part of 
 God, through second causes, in the affairs of men. 
 
 It is the routine use of technical terms, of trite conceptions and definitions, — 
 until they convey no precise idea, or else an extremely ill-founded one, that has 
 given rise to many difficulties in the modern mind. It is in part from a cause such 
 as this that "miracle," and "the supernatural " are sought to be rejected. Men do 
 not stop to analyze sufficiently what is really meant by " miracle" and the "super- 
 natural." Hut clearly and calmly realize the truth, that all forces in the universe 
 wail the bidding of God ; and apply to this the analogy of lesser things here on 
 earth. Then, although it is most true that, ordinarily, all forces obey general laws 
 —for were it otherwise, human beings could scarcely pass their lives in quietness 
 and confidence — yet it appears perfectly rational to believe that, within certain 
 limits, these forces may, on fitting occasion, be made to act abnormally, excep- 
 tionally. We all know that man himself can in some degree evoke — can in some 
 degree control — the mighty agents in the natural world — how much more, God, 
 the Author of Nature ! 
 
 12. Agenctes in Nature, Usually Invisible, Sometimes Become Visible, 
 
 Moreover, that the unseen and the unfelt should at times become visible and 
 palpable, is rendered not difficult of belief, by a consideration of common things 
 around us. The very air we breathe, the wonderful ocean of ether in whose depths 
 we live and move, is, in its usual state, invisible ; when in repose it is imper- 
 ceptible, impalpable ; yet, wh^n once set in motion, when agitated from some 
 
truth's RESURRKCTI0N8. " 
 
 cause, we hear the sound thereof, we feel the power thereof-things prior to 
 experience, incredible. So also, in regaal to light, the never-ceasmg efflux from 
 the great sun over our heads-we say it is white-it is colourless. But let it m 
 its swift journey down from its source, pass through mediums that variously refract 
 its rays ; let it touch on irregularly-shaped objects on the earth or m the a.r-on 
 floatmg cloud, or distant mountain-top.-then, in an ii.stant, see the visible glones 
 that flash into view out of what was before invisible matter ! Or take that other 
 wonderful efflux from the great central source of light and heat, take what poor 
 human beings call, without any the better comprehending, the electnc or magnetic 
 fluid This is, by the Divine ordinance, everywhere present, contributing latently, 
 vlently to the growth and movement of everything that liveth on the earth. 
 Though ord.narilv imperceptible, how evident to the eye this can, ""J" P^"?*' 
 conditions, become- in forms of grandeur, of beauty, of terror- we. who inhabit 
 these northern climes and watch by day or night, with any heedfulness. the 
 appearances of our heavens, need not to be reminded. 
 
 Bv analogy, then, no calmly-reflecting mind can take it to be a thing improb- 
 able or impossible, that the ministering agents of God, in executing His will and 
 purpose in relation to man, should become at times visible, palpable to humait 
 sense, though ordinarily they be wholly unseen. 
 
 13. Universal ll'iOuss Borne to the Fact of Such .Missions. 
 That such manifestations have been, the records before referred to, which 
 bv internal evidence prove themselves to be trustworthy, declare-declare with 
 uniforn. voice throughout the long series of centuries of which ihey are. in great 
 part, the cotemporary chronicles. Such manifestations have been, they show, 
 when a special Truth fron. on high was to be delivered ; and when ihe 1 ruth thus 
 deposited, was to be resu.citated-drawn forth afresh from the deep pit in which 
 the folly of man was for ever burying it. 
 
8 
 
 TRUTH S RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 II. CHRISTIAN PERIOD. 
 
 I. Reassertion and Amplification of Primeval Religious Truth. 
 
 But we hasten on to that marked era in human history which has caused all 
 the period subsequent to it to be called the Latter Days. 
 
 There came a time at length, when the primeval Truth, after having been 
 once more brought to light, was to receive a great development. The primitive 
 deposit, in its simplicity, was no longer to be confined to one race, to one sub- 
 division of the human family, giving rise to habits of thought and life adapted only 
 to an isolated people. It was to be committed to every tribe and nation under 
 heaven, and to give rise to a I'fe adapted to, and bringing into a simple harmony, 
 all humanity. 
 
 A change so great as this was like a new creation — a new beginning. By 
 such terms it is accordingly designated. Hence we are not to be surprised, not to 
 be incredulous, when we are assured of a repetition of direct Divine action, as 
 when God came forth from His place to enlighten man at the first. 
 
 2. The Opening of This Period a New Commencing Point. 
 
 That the opening of this second era was a moment of origination, every 
 student of the last eighteen centuries will confess. Then certainly, whatever was 
 its source, began a new law of life and belief, which has had a unique career, 
 which has affected, in an unparalleled way, the destinies and character of men. 
 
 All real origination must be in God. We cannot conceive of a positive initia- 
 tion of any really new order of things without a Divine intervention. The initiation 
 of a family of plants, of a genus of animals, is a thing inconceivable by us, as to 
 the mode ; although it is manifest enough that such initiation must have taken 
 place. In such a case our reason constrains us to believe that it was God who 
 then performed a special. Divine, personal act. We may well believe that it is so 
 also with Dispensations — moral systems which positively exert a sanative and 
 moulding influence on the interior character of men. Their starting point, 
 however veiled from view, is really God. 
 
 j". The Time Proper for a Re-beginning. 
 
 To the Eye which has perfect insight into all things as they actually are, the 
 period which we regard as the opening of our era, was the "fullness of time"— the 
 most fitting moment for an intervention more deci''ed, more wonderful, more ex- 
 tensively fruitful in results than any that had before taken place. Many had been 
 the descents in times past, by deputy, visible and invisible ; by the august agency 
 of spiritual existences, assuming sometimes the human form, — or by action on the 
 inner spirit of selected human beings. These dealings with men through secondary 
 
 I 
 
I 
 
 ' 
 
 truth's resurrections. 9 
 
 agency had been brief in duration, and occasional. Now, in a manner more inti- 
 mate, in a form more manifest, more palpable, more peculiar — in some respects 
 more intelligible — and for a period longer — even for a series of years — a direct 
 divine interposition was to happen. He whose name is for ever I AM — THK 
 Eternal — coming to earth as Son of Man, adopting at the same time the name 
 " Son of God," — proceeded to remove the great stone from the sepulchre of Truili, 
 more completely than had ever been done before. In reviving Truth now, lie 
 not only brought to light again the primeval deposit, but he imparted to it a new 
 vitality, — invested it with new and glorious meanings. 
 
 4. Man's Moral Responsibility Increased, 
 
 The responsibility of the human race, in respect to their obedience to this 
 Truth, was henceforward to be greater than ever ; was to be as great probal)ly as 
 it could be made, tor being* who were created to exercise freedom of will. Men 
 might be excused perhaps in the judgment of Divine charity, for forgetting too 
 speedily, as their generations rapidly superseded one another, the words, the 
 symbolic deeds, of previous commissioned messengers. But what would be their 
 excuse, should they as (juickly lose sight of the words and deeds of One who, with 
 plenary, independent authority, came forth directly to them from the centre of all 
 light and life and power? What should be said for them, should they, in future 
 periods of their history, fail to "reverence the Son" — to pay the homage of a life 
 of conformity to the Divine will and word, made known to them anew, under 
 sanctions and by evidences, the most striking that could be given ? 
 
 'l"o render this responsibility complete, to make it continuous in all time — 
 the words, the deeds, the predictions, the symbolic actions, of the final Divine 
 Messenger, were recorded — were reduced to writing — no longer in figures and by 
 metaphorical delineation in characters to be misinterpreted and misunderstood, — 
 but in historic form, in narratives capable of being tested, even as other historic 
 records are tested, in all after time. 
 
 5. The Plan Pursued Inttinsically Credible. 
 
 That in the execution of His mission, the Divine Messenger suffered death at 
 the hands of men — suffered death, that is, in His assumed liumani'y ;--that He 
 afterwards revived, retaining the bodily form which He had taken ; — that He 
 at length disappeared, still wearing the same form, retiring visibly, deliberately, in 
 the presence of many, iuto the cuter sphere from which, some thirty years before, 
 He had come forth — all this, in the written records is testified to by eye-witnesses, 
 by cotemporary investigators, by men who not only bore this testimony by word 
 of mouih tnd written documents, but proved, so far as man can, the entire honesty 
 of their testimony, by incurring grievous risks, by undergoing extreme toil, which, 
 by their silence they might easily have avoided ; — by at length, in many an instance, 
 submitting to death itself ratiier than in any particular gainsay their own words, a 
 necessity seeming to be laid upon them, to declare everywhere, heedless of conse- 
 quences, the things which they had both seen and heard. 
 
10 
 
 TRUTH 8 RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 The written records of this second great restitution of Divine Truth are more 
 distinct and copious, are delivered from points of view more varied and independ- 
 ent, than was the case in relation to any of the preceding interventions. 
 
 6. The Execution of the Plan an Historic Fact. 
 
 This latest drawing-near of God, too, occurred at an era when other great 
 historic events were happening ; events which have more or less affected all men, 
 in their secular interests, ever since ; events also resting on records more certain 
 and abundant than those which certify the facts of preceding times. Through the 
 organization of the Roman Empire, which at the time was beginning to embrace 
 within its sphere the principal regions of the known world, great changes in rela- 
 tion to philosophy, to morals, to law, to government, were everywhere beginning. 
 The revived religious Truth took its place as an element in the general movement 
 which was upheaving the earth. And the intervention which had been the most 
 intensely supernatural, became also the most completely historical of all. 
 
 All men therefore who are privileged to possess a cultivated intelligence — all 
 who are in any degree inspired witti a passion for high and truly ennobling science 
 — have thus been rendered more accountable than ever, in regard to their obedience 
 to Truth in its Christian aspect. For, independently of the inner witness of the 
 human spirit and conscience, which when enlightened should respond to the re- 
 quirements of all Truth — the written records of Christianity are a part of history — 
 rest on an historic basis. Its facts, its principles can be ascertained ; from the 
 copiousness of the documents and the notoriety of the events at the time of their 
 occurrence, they can be ascertained with greater precision than most other matters 
 of belief and fact of the like antiquity of date. 
 
 7. Summaries of Matters Taught at This Period Historically Preserved, 
 
 In the remaining writings of the first missionaries of Christianity, we have 
 evidence of what was antecedently to be expected, viz., that to persons who pro- 
 posed themselves as djsciples of the renewed Truth, a summary of things to be 
 believed was presented. Thus in the Epistle to the Hebrews (v., 12 — see Revised 
 Version) we hear of " the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God ; " 
 and again (vi., l), "the first principles of Christ." Sometimes it is spoken of 
 simply as the logos, as in one of the Epistles of St. Paul (I. Cor., xv., 2), "the 
 Gospel (the logos) which I preached unto you, — by which also ye are saved — if ye 
 hold it fast;" and in the narrative of the reception by Samaria of the "word 
 (logos) of God " (Acts viii., 14). That this logos, however, was not everywhere 
 literally, though in substance, the same, is manifest from the variety of terms used 
 wherever it is referred to. Our well-known authority on the Antiquities of the 
 Christian Church, Joseph Bingham, gives many fragments of Creeds from the 
 remains of the Christian writers next after the Apostles ; as also of Creeds in the 
 primitive liturgies of Jerusalem, Ctesarea, Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome, all 
 varying in phrase, though agreeing in substance (*). 
 
 
 I 
 
TRUTHS RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 11 
 
 'I- 
 
 4 
 
 i , 
 
 8. These Summaries, Like the Primeval Deposit, Suffer From Accretions. 
 
 But the fatal tendency to overlay the Truth, to load it with glosses, to surround 
 it with subtle deductions, to refine upon it, analyze and systematize it in excess, 
 continued to be the bane of human progress in Divine knowledge. Before the 
 departure from the earth of the first teachers of the renewed Truth, who had been 
 eye-witnesses of the acts and deeds of its Divine Expounder, we hear of strifes 
 about words, of philosophy falsely so called ; we hear of a Simon Magus, of a 
 Cerinlhus ; of Nicolaitans, Ebionites, Docetae. These were types of things or 
 persons that were still in the aftertime to be the hurtful parasites of Truth. 
 
 There survived still the old Jewish spirit, the spirit of the Rabbins, and of the 
 Orientals generally, allegorizing everything ; and the old Greek spirit, appearing 
 in what was called the later Platonism, enveloping all matters of thought in a 
 metaphysical mist. To these was added, soon after, the Constantine spirit, so to 
 call it ; a spirit that made everything of secondary importance in comparison with 
 polity and order. 
 
 The formulae conveying the deposit of Truth pure and simple, were of course 
 framed from time to time so as to exclude, if possible, the extravagancies of human 
 speculation. A danger then arose of enlarging the logos itself beyond the grasp 
 of average men and women. The Nicene symbol, the anchor by which substan- 
 tially Eastern and Western Christendom still keep their hold on the first tradition, 
 is in a limited degree an example of this kind of expansion. When compared in 
 its present form with itself, so to speak, some fifty-six years before, it exhibits addi- 
 tions. Since the year 381, nothing further, that has been universally adopted, has 
 been added to the Creed. 
 
 
 9. /flint Efforts to Kemoi'e Accretions. 
 
 Of all the public Assemblies or Councils which have been supposed to repre- 
 sent the whole body of Christians, only about eight can, in any legitimate sense, 
 be styled general ; for not long after the date of the last of these, the division took 
 place between Eastern and Western Christendom which has never since been per- 
 manently healed. And of the eight commonly called general or ecumenical, only 
 the first four have much value as recording in their decisions the prevailing under- 
 standing of what was the teaching and practice of the first missionaries of Chris- 
 tianity. The appeal even to these four must be made with discrimination. 
 
 10. The IVitness of Individuals. 
 
 But independently of the Councils, time would fail to speak, even briefly, of 
 the individual witnesses to primitive Christian truth. Such, in the generations all 
 along, have appeared, prompted without doubt to take up their parable and utter 
 it as they best could, by that mysterious Spirit of Truth Who, since the bodily 
 departure of Him who restored the Truth, has taken His place among men. As 
 from the remaining writings of the first missionaries of Christianity can be drawn, 
 on occasion, the primitive faith and practice, irrespective of the convenient formula* 
 
12 
 
 TRUTH S RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 of the early Creeds, so in all the several centuries since the Christian era, from 
 extant treatises written by persons unofficial and official, it can be shown that the 
 early belief, pure and simple, in spite of surrounding obstructions, was preserved. 
 These witnesses, human and ordinary, executed the function of the more manifestly 
 supernatural ministry of the earlier periods, in bringing forth Truth to light when- 
 ever temporarily buried. 
 
 1 1 . Vicissitudes of the Renewed Deposit, Since the Division into East and West. 
 
 After the division into East and West, authorities, local and partial, piled up, 
 especially in the West, in ever-increasing profusion, "wood, hay, stubble," upon 
 the acts and monuments of the first Christianity. On the dispersion over the West 
 of learned men from the East, in consequence of the capture by the Turks (in 1453) 
 of the chief see of the Oriental Church, the mind of Europe became singularly 
 roused to innumerable matters, moral and material. In the general stir, the 
 existing state of the Christianity of the West began to be subjected to examination. 
 The Council which was at last summoned to effect reforms, and which sat at 
 several intervals between 1542 and 1563, acted unfortunately under influences 
 wholly one-sided, and consequently came to many conclusions palpably opposed to 
 justice and historic truth. Serious stumbling blocks in the way of Christian peace 
 and unity were thus set up. Such difficulties, however, would probably not have 
 been long-lived, had the decisions of the Council been permitted to rest on their 
 own merits. But, unhappily, the then occupant of the See of Rome when the 
 assembly finally rose, took the novel step of embodying its decrees in an oath, 
 to be administered to all under his supposed jurisdiction who had "the cure 
 of souls." After reciting at length the articles of the Nicene Creed, this oath 
 subjoins the new dogmas as of parallel authority. In all who could be induced 
 to bind themselves by such an instrument, an effectual stop was of course at once 
 put to further mental growth and improvement. Between such persons, and those 
 whom superior intelligence compelled, and must ever compel, to refuse an obliga- 
 tion so unprecedented, a formidable gulf was also fixed. 
 
 12. Effect of Tridentine Decrees in German Empire. 
 
 In the less-Latinized portions of the German Empire, where from the frequent 
 antagonisms between the temporal and spiritual heads of Christendom, the decrees 
 of councils under Italian influence were unlikely to be welcome, the foundations 
 of established beliefs and usages soon began to be closely scrutinized. As years 
 rolled on, this examination was in some instances conducted with undue license 
 and lamentable results. The modern free inquiries of Germany, however, were 
 set on foot by the translated works of the deistical writers of England during the 
 eighteenth century. The ferment of discussion and speculation which then com- 
 menced began to subside at the close of the first quarter of the present century. 
 The extravagancies of the extreme school produced, as is usual in such cases, a 
 wholesome reaction {*). Thence was developed a series of critics and expositors 
 who have rendered thoughtful students of Truth greatly their debtors. In spite of 
 
 <« 
 
TRUTH S RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 13 
 
 <k 
 
 drawbacks, it is to German scholars in the main, that mcRlern Christians owe the 
 clear light which has been thrown, in their day, on Christian history and doctrine.* 
 It was at one time thought a fortunate thing for England that the isolation of her 
 position cut her off in great measure from the currents of thought known to be 
 circulating with great energy among her kindred on the continent of Europe. But 
 this exemption was at last attended with no small disadvantage. When through 
 increased facilities of intercourse, external ideas could no longer be excluded, they 
 came in upon a community poorly qualified to judge of them ; incompetent, in 
 fact, for the most part, to cope with the extravagancies which at the same time 
 unavoidably gained admittance. It had been too much forgotten in England by 
 both teachers and learners, that outside the fenced walls of a paradise the know- 
 ledge of good alone is not possible ; that with it, must come the knowledge of 
 evil ; it being at the same time so ordered that, under wise direction, men need 
 not receive hurt from the latter. The omissions which have been discovered in 
 schemes of instruction hitherto common in our theological schools, will, in the 
 course of years, be supplied ; and the English-speaking communities throughout 
 the world will then probably be spared disreputable panics, occasioned by the lack 
 of many-sidedness in their religious teachers. 
 
 13. Influence of the Society of Loyola until its Abolition. 
 
 Another example of the manner in which the partisans of extremes at length 
 defeat their own cherished objects, is furnished by the Society of Jesuits, in 1536. 
 The secret of the continuance and steady prevalence of the unreformed system 
 everywhere, notwithstanding its intrinsic enormities, is this — there exists within it, 
 as an essential factor, a priesthood strictly isolated from human interests and 
 devoted wholly to the cause which it has undertaken. The Jesuit system is the 
 principle of an isolated priesthood carried to excess, not that the members of the 
 Society were all to be priests ; but all were to press in a fanatical degree the 
 objects for which the priesthood already itself existed. It thus, by zeal carried to 
 excess, so much overshot its mark as to render itself an impediment to the free 
 action of governments. From nation after nation it was accordingly expelled 
 ignominiously ; and at length the power which in 1543 authorized the plans of its 
 founder, in 1773 was induced to put an end to its existence. Under its baleful 
 influence in France, secretly exercised in the chambers of the royal palace, edicts 
 of toleration were withdrawn, inflicting on that country losses, through civil war 
 and exile, from which it has never recovered. At the same time, the spirit of 
 fanaticism, rendered strong in the official teachers of the people by the removal of 
 opposition, helped in no small degree to bring about the reaction which ended in 
 the first Revolution, wherein for a time the very profession of Christianity was 
 abolished, so confounded was it with its prevailing counterfeit. One of the results 
 of this crisis, however, after an interval, war ''e re-adoption of religious toleration 
 as a principle of government. From this policy there has since been but little 
 deviation. The consequence is, that the Truth as found in the primitive Christian 
 deposit, has net failed to propagate itself within as well as without the historic 
 
14 
 
 TRUTH 8 KESUKRECTIONiS. 
 
 Church of France. That extreme Port-Royalism on ibc offle wde, and extreme 
 Sacred- Heartism on the other, should in the long-run dnt^kuji. i Voltaire and a 
 Renan, is hut natural ; just as among ourselves, and in the I'nired States, we 
 behold the wild ravings of unlettered fatalists and other najwiiic* drive crowds of 
 men into Socinianism and Universalism. At the saiut tiaae, nevertheless, in 
 numerous quarters throughout France, conscientious aod acaante minds are 
 finding a golden mean in the positive Christian truth, a* avoertained by just 
 investigation, anchoring themselves firmly thereupon. Al mo period since the 
 age of Henri IV. have the prospects of an enlightened Oui+Jiiiniity been brighter 
 than they are now in France. Within the historic Church £. Gaettce, and outside 
 of it a Ciuizot, are representatives of growing groups. 
 
 14. Effect of the Re-establisknient of the Society sf Loyola. 
 
 In 1814, as it l)ecame manifest that the career of dae fint Napoleon was 
 drawing to a close, the old governments of Europe, whidB hai been harassed 
 since the beginning of the century by the proceedings of the rt Jationists, began 
 to flatter themselves that all things around them would spewJillj revert to their 
 former condition. It was characteristic of this impression \v^:T^«aX. in courts, that 
 Pius VII., on his return to Rome after his involuntar)- exile m f ranee, immediately 
 revived the Society of the Jesuits. The indiscrete zeal with wliiich they resumed 
 their work, speedily showed that they, like the family which, j&mxsx. the same time, 
 recovere<l possession of the throne of France, had forgouem iwjdliing, and learned 
 nothing, in the hour of their adversity. Supported by linetir itccret influence, 
 Charles X. pressed upon his people the obsolete ideas; of a by-gone age so 
 gallingly as to occasion a second revolution in 1830, ending m nlue expulsion of the 
 reigning dynasty. To the same influence also is due the gira'Smal tilling up of the 
 sees of France with men dead to national feeling, and » bolHy «tbservient to the 
 plans of the Roman curia. The historic Church of that coraatrsr Eia»t ever retained 
 and often stoutly contended for the legitimate traditions di a diitinct national 
 Church. It had not unfrequently been on the verge of an omrfcpendent national 
 reformation, like that which had taken place in the historic Clmarch of the British 
 Islands. The Italian Church authorities, on the contrar}-, siiiDiot Bite time of Hilde- 
 brand, had aimed at the obliteration of national distinctioeK, aarf ulie absorption o'' 
 all ecclesiastical interests in those of the Roman See. By ana exaggeration of the 
 glories of St. Peter, they virtually annihilated the other a.po«3!Jles : « these were 
 in effect bereft of individuality by their inventions, so according to them, national 
 Churches, although founded and organized by apostles, weaic in tlie present day 
 nonentities : the see of Rome was alone to fill the field of x^sm : no historic suc- 
 cession was to be admitted as traceable anywhere but tlieme. These doctrines, 
 known northward of the Alps as ultramontanism — altbon:^ repoidiated now by 
 the Italian nation itself — have been urged with such officicttamiess by the revived 
 association of Loyola, that a very general reaction against daein) Ikm set in ; and 
 again, before the lapse of many years, would that Socaety &« visited by the 
 Nemesis of excess, in the form of a united demand on tJae [wurt of continental 
 
 
 T 
 
 \ 
 
TRUTH 8 RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 r 
 
 governments for its extinction, had not the intelligence of Europe greatly advanced 
 since the beginning of the century. An enlightened public opinion, widely 
 generating and in places solidly formed, is found to render comparatively harmless 
 the propagandists of the dead past, however embarrassing to wise legislators their 
 influence, on some occasions, may temporarily prove. The heartily-attached sons 
 of the ancient historic Churches of the Continent feel that great mistakes have 
 been made by their spiritual superiors, acting under the advice of the too ardent 
 Society which has such power over them. The Concordat hastily arranged with 
 the youthful Emperor of Austria in 1855, has, after the experience of a few years, 
 been found incompatible with impartial government, even in that country. The 
 sudden intrusion of a new titular hierarchy mto England has proved itself an error 
 in judgment. The attempted elevation into an article of faith of the previously 
 undefined notion of " Immaculate conception," has been prolific of division. 
 The ..Ti is to be said of the Encyclical and Syllabus of 1864, condemning as 
 heresy the ideas on which the nineteenth century prides itself. The extravagance 
 of such measures produces effects the reverse of those which their advisers contem- 
 plated. Intelligent investigations in innumerable additional quarters are excited, 
 and conclusions are arrived at wholly opposed to those authoritatively insisted on. 
 Thus happily for the human race the infatuation of over-zeal repeatedly brings it 
 to pass that 
 
 "Truth, crushed to earth, rises again, 
 
 While Error, wounded, writhes in pain, 
 
 And dies amidst his worshippers." 
 
 i 
 
 15. T/if Tolerance of Free Governments Adroitly Made Use of. 
 
 Under governments like those of the British Empire, and the United States 
 of North America, promoters of the theories of by-gone ages proceed generally 
 with caution. Considerable care is taken to keep out of view offensive professions 
 and practices. The principles in question, if left to the people at large, would 
 rapidly become extinct. The secret of their continued life is a well-organized 
 priesthood — in essence a secret society — intensified in spirit of late years by the 
 equally well-organized secret brotherhood of Loyola. By means of these, and the 
 adroit influence of these on subject multitudes, an interest in the cause in hand is 
 nourished ; a steadiness of aim at one object year after year, — an unrelaxing pres- 
 sure onwards to one goal year after year, are maintained. 
 
 16. Under This ^ligis. Strong Institutions for the Perpetuation of Corrupted 
 
 Truth are Set Up. 
 
 A few solitaries, often of foreign race and name, scattered about in a great 
 community, are at first disregarded. They seem for a time to do and say little 
 deserving of notice. It becomes manifest at length, however, that they are 
 working together on a plan. Permanent roots in the soil are seen to be quietly 
 obtained. Tracts of land are acquired, and Institutions for the propagation of 
 their own order are thereby established and endowed in perpetuity, irrespective of 
 
i 9 
 
 16 
 
 truth's resurrections. 
 
 the civil authorities, independent even of the portions of the population that 
 accept these agents as tlieir leaders and teachers. 
 
 An imperium in imperio like this receives, as years roll on, as a matter of 
 course, a certain limitation. The protection due from a government to every class 
 of its people, renders it invariably necessary to bring under legal control all 
 institutions which affect to regulate the personal liberty of individuals. For 
 example, circumstances repeatedly happen that show it to be unsafe for Convents 
 to be exempt from police inspection. 
 
 17. And the Dogmas of Corrupted Truth are Steadily Urged. 
 
 In regard to doctrine — societies of solitaries, with but one topic of thought, 
 and that without foundation in nature and truth, make little headway in busy, 
 practical communities, although bov.nil by a vow to press sedulously tlieir one idea 
 in every direction beyond the circle of their own devotees ('). Among their own 
 unreasoning dependents their authority is of course paramount. There will never- 
 theless always be found some, cutside the charmed limits, who will show themselves 
 susceptible of influences thus steadily exerted in tlieir neighbourhood. But such 
 impressible characters, when their cases are closely looked into, will in all likeli- 
 hood be seen to lie unfair specimens of the generality of common-sense men. 
 Such exceptional persons are not unfrequenlly to be discovered about the cloisters 
 of ancient universities, and in the ranks of clergy who have acquired a bias while 
 passing through certain portions of the course prescribed in such universities ; men 
 for the most part of sentimental and even feminine temperaments, into whose high- 
 wrought culture it is probable the corrective element of the exact sciences never 
 entered ; men who in their very childhood, in a manner unknown to their friends 
 .tnd eveu .0 themselves, received a moral twist, the direful effects of which were 
 fully developed only after a lapse of many years ; men of ambition, but shut out 
 from advancement by various accidents of policy and public taste ; men dis- 
 appointed in an early scheme of life ; men rendered mentally morbid by crushed 
 affections, family loss, personal ailment, and other conceivable causes. 
 
 The converts to the jiarty of the past from the ranks of English scholars are, 
 however, perilous acquisitions. While they continue obscure and silent, the 
 mystery of their conversion is alluring and impressive. Hut when, after a time, 
 they publish books in self-defence and for proselyting purposes, the influence of 
 their example diminishes. The writings of Manning, Newman, Oakley, Faber 
 nnd others, since their departure from the Church of their natural allegiance as 
 Kiiglishmen, have produced results different from those which their authors had at 
 heart. With the majority of their fellow-countrymen who have happened to light 
 ujKm their works, the ultiaismC) and latent bitterness observable therein, have 
 sr ved to deepen previously-existing jirejudices as to the inevitable effect on 
 character of the foreign system of faith and worship. On the othei hand, the 
 works of these writers, not being as yet a prohibited literature among their new 
 friends, sow seeds of unwonted thtught here and there in souls ennuyees witli the 
 breviary and kindred manuals ; for it is impossible that the productions of minds 
 
 
truth's resurrections. 
 
 17 
 
 
 V 
 
 educated to maturity in the intellectual atmosphere c the British Isles, should not 
 have still lingering about them particles of the national spirit "of independence. (') 
 
 1 8. Written ami Printed Scripture a Standing Test. 
 
 We can never be sufficiently thankful that the earliest Christian traditions of 
 the teachings and deeds of Him who was the Truth, were speedily comn^itted to a 
 written record, which in recent times has become even a printed record, obtainable 
 by all. By the contents of this record, every formula of faith can, in the last 
 resort, be tested. 
 
 It would seem to suggest itself at once, that the accurate unbiased rendering 
 of such a document, pure and simple, into the vernacular of every land, must be a 
 thing of course. A strange infatuation, however, — a phase of the tendency in man 
 before remarked upon — seized, at a comparatively late period, large numbers of 
 the possessors of the record. They were fain to keep it under the thick stone of 
 languages not generally understood. This infatuation, from force of habit, in many 
 nations still exists. 
 
 The record, in every instance, was originally made in the vernacular speech of 
 the locality in which the recorded events occurred. When the vernacular, in the 
 lapse of time and from the force of circumstances, came to be superseded by other 
 tongues, — in; tead o*" conforming to the modifications which the surrounding com- 
 munity was undergoing, the fond and fatal desire arose, on the part of man.y, to 
 retain the old record still in the old tongue, albeit fallen into disuse, and by the 
 majority forgotten. Fear of al)use was the plea for resistance to change ; also the 
 old heathen priest-feeling, that exclusive control over oracles must be retained, 
 had, without doubt, its part in the resistance. 
 
 Out of the sepulchre of the unknown tongues the record has, nevertheless, 
 in the latter days been drawn. It may now be read in the dialects of most nations 
 under heaven ; and printing has rendered it, as well as all other historic documents, 
 comparatively incorruptible and indestructible. No longer now can obscure scribes 
 in isolated monasteries gratify superiors by convenient insertions, omissions and 
 amplifications. No longer now can the ravages of fire, of damp, of time, the 
 ban of the in<|uisitor, his indexes ('°), his flames, avail to the annihilation of works 
 which the enlightened religious instincts (jf men pronounce to be precious. 
 
 19. Writ ten and Printed Scripture Earnestly Studied in the Present .-ix^e. 
 
 In no age have greater efforts been made, than are being made in the jnesent, 
 to understand this record, to arrive at purity in its letter, to cat''h with earnestness 
 and certainty its veritable spirit. Krei'Nate TAs (IRAI'HAS — the very words of 
 the great Kevealer Himself, — ".Search into — (piestion — sift — the written records" — 
 are being obeyed with a .real founded on knowledge. While the process is going 
 forward, — during the tim ' of transition from comparative darkness to light — 
 there may be apparent coni'ision, an(' ome sharpness of contention. Hut out of 
 this process, rather than fron, the. pressing of primitive organization, will, in all 
 
r 
 
 1 
 
 18 
 
 TRUTH S RKSURRBGTIONS. 
 
 likelihood, be evolved the unity which is so widely longed for, and which seems 
 to be predicted as a' thing of the future, when there will be no more need of 
 laborious efforts at mutual instruction and enlightenment, for that all shall know 
 from the least to the greatest. Already are wearisome shibboleths ceasing ; and 
 men are being drawn to each other over the artiticial barriers set up by their fore- 
 fathers. The Truth, risen again, is being known ; and, becoming known, is 
 setting free. 
 
 20. Mistakfs in Theology Discovered — Unity Thereby Promoted. 
 
 The copious literature, begotten in England, Ireland and Scotland by the 
 theological publications which in 1860-3 "frighted the isles from their propriety," 
 has had the effect of reawaking the interest of the clergy and ministers of religion 
 generally in departments of study which, for a series of years, had been i.i the 
 most influential quarters either neglected wholly, or very superficially cultivated ; 
 especially in the just criticism and exposition of the documents of Christianity — 
 the written foundation of itself and of its preparatory dispensation — based upon a 
 real knowledge of the languages in which they were from time to time delivered. 
 The simplification of Truth thence arising ir> bringing together into greater unity 
 of sentiment the clergy of the ancient historic Church and the more enlightened 
 ministers of the Christian i)0(lies that exist apart from it. At the same time, it 
 looks like a providence within the historic Church itself, that an increased harmony 
 is arising between two schools which had long been kept asunder on the theological 
 doctrine of baptismal regeneration ("). Thus while unity of sentiment, on the 
 basis of simplified Truth is being steadily brought about between the historic 
 Church and bodies of Christians separated from it, — within the Church itself, by 
 means of a more perfect grasp of a long-misunderstood doctrine, acquired by 
 renewed and more enlightened study, a desirable homogeneity of belief and of 
 teaching is being established. It may not be out of place to add also, that even 
 the adoption of an ecclesiastical architecture by the Christian associations which 
 since the Reformation have formed themselves independently of the historic 
 Church, — their approaches, in some instances, to a liturgical worship, and their 
 partial use of ecclesiastical music, vocal as well as instrumental, — are all tending 
 to the great redintegration, which, after well-considered and judiciously-introduced 
 changes (•"), is at a future day again to render "the British people" and "the 
 British Church" convertible terms. Within the historic Church itself, the archi- 
 tectural, musical and liturgical renaissance is helping on the homogeneousness 
 already spoken of, which misumlerstood doctrine in former years prevented (*•), 
 
 21. Unity on all Hands Increasingly Desired, 
 
 In the East and in the West, throughout large areas of Christendom, there 
 are at this moment movements of reform, movements towards a oneness — a stir 
 beneath the ponderous blocks of tradition, of »logma, of custom, which for cen- 
 turies have all but crushed out the genuine Christian life. In France and in Italy 
 there are startling symptoms within the ancient historic national Churches, of a 
 
 1 
 
TRUTHS RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 19 
 
 
 return, ere long, to primitive Truth and usage. Between the ancient Greek 
 Church and our own in the mother-country, there have been of late open ap- 
 proaches to intercommunion. That old Apostolic Church, equally with ourselves, 
 denies the authority of foreign spiritual power, and rejects many of the fond addi- 
 tions in faith and practice of partial synods and councils. A like approach to 
 intercommunion has also taken place between the Greek Church and the Church 
 in the United States descended from the English. On political grounds, there are 
 fewer difficulties in the way of friendly intercourse between the»e two communions. 
 These events are characteristic of the time in which we live, when men every- 
 where are brought into more frequent and more familiar communication with one 
 another, on all subjects, than in the days gone by. Truth, in its highest sense, is, 
 we have reason to believe, heaving up the earth ; and, in the end, by its own in- 
 trinsic force, under Him who is the Truth, will cause itself to be seen, to be felt, 
 to be obeyed ^'*). 
 
 22. Re-uniou Suggested by Coincidences in 1865 ; (i) in Relation to East 
 
 and West. 
 
 Especially at the Easter-tide of this year (1865), were we prompted to an 
 earnest prayer for the unity of Christendom. In this year, by an interesting coin- 
 cidence, Easter-day, the Resurrection festival of the Messiah, was observed by all 
 the historic national Churches of Western Europe, and by the Greek or Oriental 
 Churches, simultaneously, on one and the same day (•*). Usually, from the differ- 
 ence of Old and New Style, the Easters of the two great divisions of Christendom 
 fall on different days. This year, from chronological necessities in the calculations 
 for the two Calendars, it was not so. As, on tlie 15th of April, the sun descended 
 in the Western wave to the people of Sitka and Vancouver, and the mainland 
 opposite, where on the extren * north-west of this continent the dominions of the 
 Czar and of our Queen are conterminous, all tlie Christian inhabitants on both 
 sides the dividing line could say with equal truth, "It is Easter-eve." And on 
 tlie following morn, while devout congregations in this Western Hemisphere were 
 singing in the English tongue — 
 
 Ye choirs of New Jerusalem, 
 
 V'our sweetest notes employ, 
 The Pasch.1I victory to hymn 
 
 In strains of holy joy, — 
 
 Christian men and Cinistian women throughout Russia, Cireece, and the whole 
 Orient had only just ceased in their several dialects the mutual salutations of "The 
 Lord is risen." They in their Eucharist, as we in ours, and as all the other 
 ancient Churclies of the West in tlieirs, on that day commemorated togetiier 
 " Him who by Ilisdeatii destroyed death, and by His rising again restored men 
 to everlasting life." Tlius, in diis respect at least, was Ciiristendom one. It is 
 true, here was only a momentary coincidence in regard to a full luoon ard a 
 festival dependent tiiereupon. Hut did it not suggest to the thoughtful mind the 
 wish that in weiglitier matters tliere were harmony among Christians in perpetuity? 
 
20 
 
 TRUTHS RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 Did it not suggest the wish that Christendom could present, as without doubt in 
 the progress of light and knowledge it will one day present, the grand moral spec- 
 tacle of a Body all one in the simplicity of Truth ? The step to this state of things 
 will be easy, when it shall be universally seen, as it is beginning to be, that, when 
 from the canon of Scripture, from the Nicene and early Western Creed, from the 
 two sacraments, from the three orders of the apostolic ministry, you have lifted off 
 "the Pelion on Ossa " of adventitious matter piled upon them respectively, in 
 the li^ast and in the West since the primitive age, even NOW, Christendom 
 fundamentally is one (*^). 
 
 23. (2) In Relation to Christian and Jew. 
 
 By another interesting coincidence, it is to be added that Good Friday in this 
 year (1865), was also the day of the celebration of the Passover among the modern 
 Jews. One of the points of divergence in the old time between the East and Wesc 
 was the close adherence of the former to the Jewish method of calculating the time 
 of the Paschnl feast. This long-continued orie.ital custom brought it to jiass this 
 year, that the Christian Good Friday and the Jewish Passover-day fell, according 
 to the Western Calendar, on the 14th of April. 
 
 Thus on that day, before God and the intelligences of Heaven, earth presented 
 the unusual sij^ht of the great bulk of its inhabitants who in any sense rest their 
 hopes on a Divine Messiah, whether Christian or Jew, united for a moment in a 
 common oliservance. Such conjunctures occurring from time to time in the cycle 
 of the years, prompt with peculiar emphasis the prayer, that the day may be 
 hastened, when the veil shall be more fully removed from the moral vision of 
 Israel, when they shall all see and be convinced that David their King is already 
 come, and is reigning ; that the Jerusalem which their prophets taught them to 
 yearn after is not the city made with hands, bearing now for so many centuries 
 that name ; but a higher Jerusalem, even a spiritual, whose outer court and earthly 
 representative is the Christian Church everywhere, into the several branches of 
 which in the several nations of the earth they are fore-ordained to be gradually 
 absorbed. In the large Jewish communities of Germany and elsewhere on the 
 Continent of Europe, there are, we are assured on respectable authority, earnest 
 enquiries going on continually on the subject of the Messiah, ending in many 
 instances in an extrication from the complex subtleties of the Rabbis, and an 
 intelligent adojjtion of the Christian faith. In the country in which our lot is cast, 
 we do little — we can do little — for the Jew. But a coincidence like that of Good 
 Friday in this year may serve to give a fresh reality to our charitable aspirations 
 for the well-being of the remnant of Israel. 
 
 24. Good Friday ^ iS6s, Further Remarkable. 
 
 Would that in the retrospect of the year nothing further was to be recorded 
 as rendering memorable the anniversary just ref' rred to. But not from the 
 Christian point of view alone will the 14th of April be a day to be distinguished 
 from others. The inhabitants of this continent, and of all civilized lands, will in 
 
 f 
 
 4 
 
TRUTH S RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 21 
 
 after times recall it as the day on which, before their very eyes, so to speak, was 
 perpetrated one more of those nefarious deeds, which at intervals in the world's 
 hisjory confer on a maniac or deliberate assassin, patriotic or mock-patriotic, an 
 infamous imm "talily (**). Just as on every hand a spirit of gladness was springing 
 up, at the cessation of a hateful strife, and the recommencement of a happy era ; 
 just as the cloud was lifting, from a scene desolate indeed in many respects, and 
 reeking with the blood of a second Cadmean slaughter, but still an arena where, at 
 all events, the names of lx}ndman and bondwoman would be no more heard, where 
 consequently in the after ages it would be confessed the cause of civilization had 
 prevailed — ^just as a prospect like this was opening, the blackness of darkness again 
 suddenly came duvvn, filling men's hearts with dismay. A crime like that which 
 effected this change usually frustrates itself. It summons forth from the ranks 
 of mankind many champions in the place of one or two, and thus renders strong 
 the side which it aimed to weaken. In all probability the act will prove to have 
 been the issue — not of political conspiracy — but of private or family revenge, or of 
 the working of some solitary brain rendered morbid by the excitements of the 
 time. In the meanwhile we have to wait until the light again appears, resting on 
 the recollection, how often in history, out of disasters the most appalling there 
 have been evolved compensatory benefits previously not to be imagined (^*). 
 
 2v Conclusion. 
 
 I 
 
 To utilize practically the matters which have been treated of, — to all who 
 sir jrely desire jieace and the well-being of society at large, and of themselves 
 individually, — to all who would "serve God without fear, in holiness and right- 
 eousness before Him, all the days of their life," — it is earnestly recommended to 
 kindle up within, by every possible means, more and more, the spirit of thai 
 ascertained revealed deposit of Truth, of which mention has so often been made. 
 In the memorable vision of St. John the Divine, the heavenly messenger, it will 
 be rememljered, bade him eat the little Hook which he brought down in his 
 hand. Even so we make the right use of the Records of that Truth in our hands 
 when we eat, when we feed upon, their real substance. He who is the Truth, 
 called himself also the Bread which came down from heaven, that men might eat 
 thereof and not die : that is. He was to be regarded as the Tree of Life restored 
 again, for the free use henceforward of all faithful, obedient men. Now, — what- 
 ever other means may exiit for continuing the essential life of the human soul, — 
 Him we find as bread here, in His words, in His thoughts, in His acts and deetls. 
 These all — as we say of wholesome food — we have to assimilate ; these all, we 
 have to take into our moral system ; these all, with diligent care, we are to make 
 the fixed, habitua' principles of our common, daily lives. 
 
1 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 
 Note (i), p. 3. 
 
 " I cannot fancy to myself what the Law of Nature means, but the Law of 
 God. How should I know I ought not to steal, I ought not to commit adultery,, 
 unless somebody had told me so. Surely 'tis because I have been told so. 'Ti& 
 not because I ought not to do them, nor because you think I ought not ; if so, our 
 minds might change ; whence then comes the restraint ? From a higher Power, 
 nothing else can bind. I cannot bind myself, for I may untie myself again ; nor an 
 equal cannot bind me, for we may untie one another: it must be a superior power, 
 even God Mm\ghty."—Se/den's Table Talk, p. 182. Edit. J. Jitissell Smith. 
 
 Note (2), p. 4. 
 
 The following passage from Lelimann de Serapide, in the Aluseum Philologi- 
 cum of Thorn Crenius, p. 402, Edit. Lugdun. Batav., 1699, furnishes a curious 
 enumeration of the objects of religidus regard among the ancient Egyptians : — 
 
 "Si uUa sub sole natio, certe .^Egyptiorum gens, idolatrise altissime immersa 
 fuit ; adeo enim horum mentes superstitio invasit ut non modo animantia bruta, 
 puta ex terrestrihus, canes, feles, oves, lupos, leones, capras, hircos, mures araneos, 
 ichneumones, crocodilos, et serpentes ; ex volatilibus, aquilas, gryphos, ibides, et 
 accipitres ; ex aquatilibits, oxyrinchos, lepidotos, latos, anguillas ; sed et plantas, 
 allium et cepas ut deos coluerint, imo quod pudet referre, cioacis, et quod magis, 
 pudendis ipsis, tanquam causae creationis animalium, sacra fecerint." To these 
 must be added also "Bos ille Memphiticus in honorem Osiridis sub Apidis vel 
 Serapidis nomine, ab universa /Egypto divino honore nullo non tempore cultus." 
 
 Note (3), p. 5. • 
 
 There are traditions among the Rabbinical writers, of the " Seven precepts 
 of Noah," relating to the natural duty common to all men. They may be seen in 
 Taylor's Calmet, sub voce "Noachidae." Maimonides says the first six of them 
 descended from Adam. Some Cabbalists pretend that Ham stole from Noah a 
 treatise of his "Of the Secrets of Natural Things," and gave it to Mizraim 
 (Egypt). Oriental nations assert that Noah left behind him ten books. The poet 
 Keats glances at these traditions in his Hyperion (Book H., 11. 133-138), where he 
 makes Saturn speak of 
 
 "That old spirit-leaved book, 
 
 Which starry Uranus with finger bright 
 
 Saved from the shores of darkness, when the waves 
 
 Low-ebb'd still hid it up in silent eloom ; 
 
 And which book ye know I ever kept 
 
 For my firm-based footstool." 
 
 Thus happily turned by Merivale into Metamorphosean verse ; — 
 
 Arcanis * * intexta volumina fatis ; 
 Pollice qiis; nitido tenebrarum stellifer oris 
 Uranus eripuit, cum decrescentibus undis 
 Obruit alta vadis refltii caligo profundi : — 
 , Ilium nempe librum, scitis, subsellia nostris 
 
 Subjeci pedibus, firmi fulcimina regni, . • 
 
 23 
 
t 
 
 24 
 
 TRUTHS RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 Tt is supposed by several writers on mythology that the history of Noah is the 
 substratum of the legends of Uranus, Janus, Ogyges, is, Bacchus and others. 
 
 Apropos of Uranus — I venture to close this mixed annoi^-cion with a memorandum 
 in relation to the planet of that name. On the 20th of March, 1865, after the 
 lapse of one of its years, that is to say, after eighty-four of ours, plus seven days, 
 it returned to the point in the heavens where it was first discovered by the astrono- 
 mer Herschel in 1781. 
 
 Note (4), p. 10. 
 
 See Bingham, vol. iii, 335-360. Edit. Strakn: 
 
 Note (5), p. 12. 
 
 It is now (1865) twenty years since Hagenbach published his work, lately 
 reprinted by Messrs. Clark, of Edinburgh, on "German Rationalism in its Rise, 
 Progress and Decline, in the 1 8th and 19th Century." The Christian Remem- 
 brancer of April, in noticing this volume, says it forms a useful adjunct to the 
 studies now incumbent on the clergy in connection with the outbreak of sorr ;thing 
 much worse than the extinct phase of " Free Thought." 
 
 Note (6), p. 13. 
 
 Milton, in his Areopagitica, or Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing, 
 (Prose Works, vol. ii, p. 65. Ed. Bohn) has the following, among other wise 
 remarks on the necessity of some acquaintance with works hostile to our own 
 views of truth and righteousness: — "To the pure, all things are pure; not only 
 meats and drinks, but all kind of knowledge, whether of good or evil : the know- 
 ledge cannot defile, nor consequently the books, if the will and conscience be not 
 defiled. For books are as meats and viands are ; some of good, some of evil 
 sul)slance ; and yet God, in that unapocryphal vision, said without exception, 
 ' Rise, Peter, kill and eat ;' leaving the choice to each man's discretion. Whole- 
 some meats to a vitiated stomach differ little or nothing from unwholesome ; and 
 best books to a naughty mind are not inapplicable to occasions of evil. Bad 
 meats will scarce breed good nourishment in the healthiest concoction ; but herein 
 tlie difference is of bad books, that they to a discreet and judicious reader serve 
 in many resj>ects to discover, to confute, to forewarn, and to illustrate." For the 
 sake of exhibiting a reference to Canada, wherein our country is curiously and not 
 inaccurately spoken of, as occupying a position analogous to that of Cathay or 
 China, I add a second passage from the same treatise. The idea contained therein 
 bears on the questions of conducting theological controversy in the Latin language, 
 and prohibiting the translation of foreign books. " Nor bo>j..5 it to say for these, 
 and all the heathen writers of great t infection, if it must be thought so, with 
 whom is bound up the life of human learning, that they wrote in an unknown 
 tongue, so long as we are sure those languages are known as well to the worst of 
 men, who are both most able and most diligent to instil the poison they suck, 
 first into the courts of princes, acquainting them with the choicest delights, and 
 criticisms of sin. ... By which compendious way all the contagion that 
 foreign books can infuse, will find a passage to the people far easier and shorter 
 than an Indian voyage, though it could be sailed either by the north of Cataio 
 eastward, or o. Canada westward, while our Spanish licensing gags the English 
 press never so severely. " Ibid., p. 69. 
 
 Note (7), p. 16. 
 
 Of modern monasticism generally, the writer of the Article Monachistn, in 
 the Encyclopedia Britannica, makes the following remark — "Since the Reforma- 
 
 \ 
 
I 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 25 
 
 tion, Monachism cannot be said to have manifested any inherent vitality or power. 
 With the advar. . of modern civilization, its highest meaning and only conserva- 
 tive use are gone ; and* so far as it still maintains itself in Europe, it must be held 
 to be an opponent at once of genuine religious life and the advance of an elevated 
 rational cultivation." 
 
 Note (8), p. i6. 
 
 The fictitious essentiality of union and communion on the part of all men 
 with the occupant of a particular see in Italy — pressed on Englishmen by the 
 recent English converts to Romanism — is clearly a dogma issuing from the 
 narrow sensuous spirit pointedly and expressly rebuked in the words (all will 
 recognize Whose they are) — *' Believe me, the hour cometh wlien ye shall neither 
 in this mountain (solely), nor yet at Jerusalem (solely), worship the Father. 
 The hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father 
 (irrespective of place), in spirit and in truth." — S(. Johtty iv., 21, 23. 
 
 Note (9), p. 17. 
 
 In respect to the extravagant cultus of the Virgin which more or less char- 
 acterizes the European National Churches, and the Romish communions in the 
 British Dominions and the United States, J. H. Newman, in his Apologia (p. 228, 
 Appleton's Ed.), thus expresses himself: "Such devotional manifestations in 
 honour of our Lady had been my great crux as regards [Romanism] ; I say 
 frankly I do not fully enter into them now ; I trust I do not love her the 
 less, because I cannot enter into them. They may be fully explained and 
 defended ; but sentiment and taste do not run with logic ; they are suitable for 
 Italy, but they are not suitable for England. But, over and above England, 
 my own case was special ; from a boy I had been led to consider that my 
 Maker and I, His creature, were the two beings, certainly such, in rertim 
 natiira. I will not here speculate, however, about my feelings. Only this I 
 know full well now, and did not know then, that the [Romish] Church allows 
 no image of any sort, material or immaterial, no dogmatic symbol, no rite, no 
 sacrament, no saint, not even the Blessed Virgin herself, to come between the 
 soul and its Creator. It is face to face, 'solus cum solo,' in all matters between 
 man and his God, He alone creates ; He alone has redeemed ; before his awful 
 eyes we go in death ; in the vision of Him is our eternal beatitude." — Why devo- 
 tional manifestations in honour of Notre Dame are suitable for Italy and not 
 suitable for England, may be deduced in part from the following item of statis- 
 tics, just now circulating in the public papers: "Population of Italy (in 1865), 
 21,777,534; of whom 16,999,701 can neither read nor write." — While on the 
 subject of "things suitable and unsuitable," it may not be out of place to refer 
 to the curious and instructive contrast presented by two conspicuous funerals 
 happening in one week in London, in the spring of 1865 : the one of a distin- 
 guished Romish ecclesiastic resident in England ; the other of a munificent 
 British nobleman : the former gaudy and theatrical, accompanied by an un- 
 English throng, bearing upon them outwanily and openly the unmistakable 
 impress of superstitious training, and consequent contractedness ; the latter grave 
 and solemnly-grand, without affectation or over-wrought pretension, moving on 
 amidst groups of honest-faced, intelligent-looking men, and clear-eyed, open- 
 countenanced youth. ([ am judging from the pictorial illustrations in the admir- 
 able weekly publications which now so conveniently admit us to be spectators, 
 virtually, of all the principal events in the world's current history.) 
 
1J6 
 
 TRUTH S RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 NOTK (lO), p. 17. 
 
 The first Index of Prohibited Books was issued by Gianpietro Caraft'a, bishop 
 of Rome in 1559. It characteristically includes all Bibles in modern languajjes, 
 enumerating forty-eight editions, chiefly printed within the limits of unreformed 
 national Churches. 
 
 Note (ii;, p. 18. 
 
 This result is in some measure owing to the intemperate attacks from without, 
 in 1864, on the part of a popular Baptist minister in London, whose widely- 
 circulated indictments, so to call them, have excited an earnest and intelligent 
 investigation into the real meaning of the theological pomt in question. 
 
 Note (12), p. 18. 
 
 A Royal commission has this year (1865) proposed, in the Declaration of 
 Adherence exacted of Clergymen by the Parliamentary Act of 14, Charges II., a 
 simple modification, which in 1662 would, in all likelihood, have saved a secession 
 from the national Church of many of its clergy and laity. Also, in the same year, 
 (1865), the two Convocations of England have been permitted bylaw to alter a 
 Canon (the 36th). We can see in the precedents thus advisedly established, two 
 of the means by which petty stumbling blocks in the way of harmony internally, 
 and of re-union with alienated sons and daughters externally, will be cautiously 
 and judiciously removed. In Canada — principally in Canada East — a fragment of 
 the Church of France exists, submitting now — not, as on ancient Catholic principles 
 it ought, to the spiritual authorities of the ecclesiastical province, into the area of 
 which, by force of circumstances it has passed — nor even to the original authority 
 of the mother-church in France, but — to the authority of an Italian bishoji. And 
 this state of things is legalized by the local civil power. It has consequently been 
 considered singular by some, that the presbyters and deacons of the Anglican 
 CJuiich in the French portion of Canada, have not, ere now, been relieved from 
 declaring that " no foreign prelate hath any jurisdiction within this realm. " But 
 it must be borne in mind that the French Roman Catholics of Canada, however 
 firmly their multifarious institutions are rooted in the land by ancient landed 
 endowments, constitute, after all, in the eye of the law, only a voluntary associa- 
 tion. Their y)osition is that of tiie adherents of the bishop of Rome in the islands 
 of Great Britain and Ireland ; except that here, it is not, as there, a breach of the 
 local civil law, for their ecclesiastics to assume the titles of sees already canoni- 
 cal ly established. By the fourth article of the treaty of 1763, the Sovereign of 
 Great Britain engaged "that his new Roman Catholic subjects (i>., the members 
 of the French Church iii Canada) might profess the worship of their religion, 
 according to the rights of the Romish Church, as far as the laws of Great Britain 
 permitted." See interesting matter on this subject in "Debates on the Bill for 
 the Government of Quebec," p. 61. 
 
 Note (13), p. 18. 
 
 With what grateful enthusiasm, on the part of all theological schools, have the 
 noble restorations of Lee Guinness in Dublin been hailed ! 
 
 Note (14), p. 19. 
 
 The real character of the Church, as a society originating in the Messiah when 
 on earth, and organized under His direction, by His first ministers and preachers, 
 is always in danger of being forgotten in countries where, for a series of ages, it has 
 
 i 
 
i 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 27 
 
 become mixed up witli the civil constitution. In such communities, the legal 
 sanctions of the Church usurp the place of its real essence in the consideration 
 of many. Decrees of the Ecclesiastical Court of Final Appeal in regard to certain 
 recently-organized colonial dioceses, are however liaving the effect of recallinij 
 attention to what are the essential, and what the non-essential, conditions of Church 
 existence. 
 
 Attempts have been nia<ie in some of the public prints of England to excite 
 ridicule against the position of bishops in the dependencies of the British Empire, 
 in consequence of Lord Westbury's decision to the effect that the Royal Letters 
 Patent create for them no territorial jurisdiction, and confer on them no legal 
 coercive power. That bi-ihops should exist and exercise their functions independ- 
 ently of the Imperial Parliament and Royal Letters Patent, and that the Church 
 should be in the position of a voluntary association, are novel, mirth-moving ideas, 
 to jurists and litterateurs, whose views have been confined to their own insular 
 affairs, and formed on theories of state, now in many points obsolete. But in the 
 British Islands themselves, is not the old historic Church, in fact, at this moment 
 a voluntary association? Have no clauses of the Act of Uniformity been virtually 
 repealed? Could the Letters Patent of the metropolitans and bishops of England 
 be in every jot and tittle enforced? Have not the principles of toleration, adopted 
 by the Covernments of France and Italy, placed even the ancient historic Churches 
 of those countries in the category of voluntary associations ? To persons acquainted 
 with the history and working of the Anglo-American Churches in the Unitetl 
 .States and throughout the British Northlaml of this Continent, ecclesiastical 
 autonomy excites no surprise. On the contrary, it is a jirinciple cordially accepted 
 and acted on, as being in harmony with primitive Christianity, which is a moral 
 and not a material power. 
 
 The firm root which Episcopacy has gained, in all the plantations of England 
 throughout the globe, is due, for one thing, to the discreet eschewing of the 
 pretentious concomitants which have more or less grown uji around it in every 
 country where for centuries it has been by law established. Departures from 
 this vi^ise policy are sure to prove detrimental. The spiritual " powers that be," 
 throughout the wide domain of the Britisii Colonies, would do well to read 
 ':cv,.tsionally the testimony of John .Selden, a well-wisher to Episcojiacy, in the 
 Cromwellian period: "Thalwhifh is thought to have done the Bishops hurt," 
 he says, "is their going about to bring men to a blind obedience; imposing 
 things upon them (though perhaps small and well enough), without preparing 
 them, and insinuating into their reasons and fancies. Every man loves to know 
 his commander. I wear these gloves : but perha])s if an alderman were to 
 command me, I should think much to do it. What has he to do with me ? Or 
 if he has, peradventure I do not know it. 'i'his jumping on things at first dash 
 will destroy all. To keep up friendship, there must be little addresses ami 
 applications; whereas bluntness spoils it (]uickly. To keep up the hierarchy, there 
 must be little applications made to men ; they must be brought on by little and 
 little. So in the primitive times ]iovver was gained ; and so it must be con- 
 tinued. Scaliger said of luasnnis — .SV minor esse voluertt, major fitisset. So 
 we may say of the bishops — si mi)tores esse I'oliieriitt, majores fuissent. The 
 bishops were too hasty, else with a discreet slowness they might have had what 
 they aimed at. The old story of the fellow that told the gentleman he might 
 get to such a place, if he did not ride too fast, would have fitted their turn. 
 For a bishop to cite an old canon to strengthen his new articles, is as if a lawyer 
 would plead an old statute that has been repealed God knoweth how long." 
 TabU Talk, \>. iio. Edit. J. Kttssell Smith. — (As an extreme and cautionary 
 exatr.ple of the manner in which ecclesiastical titles will in time accumulate, 
 those of the bishop of Rome, as given in the oflicial Anmiario or clergy-list of 
 
28 
 
 TRUTH 8 RESURRECT10X& 
 
 Italy, etc., may be cited. They are these — "Vicar oi f. C, Successor of the 
 Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontifex of the Catinwiar C'tarch, Patriarch of 
 the West, Primate of Italy, Metropolitan of Rome, asoi >«w«reign of the States 
 of the Church.") 
 
 The colonial dioceses of the British Church are obLKumiHg one after another, 
 the right to have representative synods, with the po-»^«r lof electing their own 
 bishops. Spiritual rulers, permanently identified with tbt ■KiLleiia-stical interests of 
 the regions in which they respectively discharge their fumataoiK, are thus intended 
 to be secured. As such dioceses grow in population, xmi clergy also become 
 numerous therein, there is in fact no great difificulty in findiiiiig within the limits of 
 each, men duly qualified to exercise with judgment the tnnHmioi office. From the 
 long-established habit of looking to the mother-church m fcrmer times for every 
 thing, there will exist nevertheless for many a year in (S-oyjOiul dioceses a number 
 of persons with little appreciation of the boon of self-goiTtmincnt, and ready on 
 every test occasion to throw up their newly-acquired prjvjiege;^., and return back to 
 the Egypt of easy irresponsible dependence. The locaJ aictachment and local 
 patriotism of this school of reasoners are small. Thdir jEJcnttbers and influence 
 therefore may be expected to vary inversely as the approiiiiiiBation of the colony to 
 the condition of an autonomous state. As long as ibey cam, however, they vill 
 hinder the growth of a young nationality. But such a pajrtj must in time come a 
 an end. Britain, the Mighty Mother, is herself every daj rtoAin^ to her daughter 
 colonies, and her daughter colonial Churches, lessons 'A «lf-reliance, and seif- 
 resj)ect. She is by degrees insisting on it, that they sJiall nuo more, like children 
 unable to help themselves, look to her, on every taaatsrgency, across the sea. 
 Ecclesiastical ultramarine-ism, in colonies, like ecclesiBL«tnciI altramontanism on 
 the Continent of Europe — a foe, each of them, to free masnue development- -is ia 
 this manner destined, in the irresistible progress of evtml*, m he extinguished. 
 
 NoTK (15), p. 19. 
 
 In the Church Journal oi New York, of the date Mamtfe: 22, 1865, a writer, 
 who has mastered tlie subject, gives some curious inlonrntECaoa in reijard to occa- 
 sional coincidences in the Easters of the Westeru hiiaioirk Churches, and the 
 Eastern. After having calculated Easter for eight cycl«»- 'of che moon, from A.U. 
 1862 to 2013 inclusive, a period of 152 years, he find* lluas m that interval there 
 will be 
 
 44 years in which Easter in the East and West will! «oiOTnia<ri:e. 
 
 / in which Easter in the East will be laaor Hi^iin ^ ,' ,' 
 
 that of the West by four weeks 
 
 1 ■' ' nve weeks. 
 
 8 
 32 
 
 After the lapse of 300 years, this writer shows titaJ zht increasing difference 
 l<etween Old and New Style would render the coincidtaxot of Easter in the East 
 and West impossible, were it not for the change in tixe sSaiys of the Paschal full 
 moons, provided for in the Anglican Churches Ijy tiit gradual advance of the 
 Golden Numbers, and in the Continental national OLiiarch«» by the system of 
 Epacts ; but these changes in the days of the Pascha.] fuiJO ouions in some measure 
 counteract the effect of the divergence of the Old and New >cyle, so that there will 
 continue to be coincidences of Easter, and the group cJ ie^aiiTiLs depending on it, in 
 the two parts of Christendom, gradually decreasing in ireipcncy, until Easter day, 
 25th March (Old Style) 12th April (New Style), A.D- zi^i, which will be the last 
 Easter East and West will celebrate on the same day. Afcor cFiar, such coincidences 
 become impossible. As a matter of curiosity it may be artdeii, that it further 
 comes out in the calculations of this writer, that during l)W century 6700-6799, the 
 Paschal full moons by our calendar will fall on the fiajoucdsy^ of the month as in. 
 
 I' 
 
 I 
 
NOTES. 
 
 29 
 
 the Nicene Calendar ; and that during the same century the difference between the 
 Old and New Style will be forty-nine days or sevsn weeks, so that the Sunday 
 letters will also agree in the two Calendars, and thus during the whole of these loo 
 years East and West will keep taster nominally on the same days, but at an 
 interval of seven wpi.-ks apart, our Easter falling constantly on Quinquagesima 
 Sunday of the Eastern Church. After an interval of 6,900 years, the Paschal full 
 moons would again fall nominally on the same days in the calendar of Exst and 
 West, but 52 bissextile days having meantime been omitted in the West, the 
 Sunday letters would not accord, and "7 and 52 being prime to each other, 
 (7 X 6900) 48,300 years would have to elapse before the same coincidences would 
 again occur, and meanwhile (7 x 52) 364 bissextile days omitted by us would have 
 made the Old and New Style to differ one whole year more. The Easter of the 
 Greek Church having passed through the whole cycle of the seasons, would be 
 celebrated oi.e year and seven weeks after ours." — Now that the railway and 
 telegraph systems of Europe have extended to Russia and Asia generally, it is to be 
 expected that the difference between Old and New Style will speedily disappear. 
 It is singular that the awkwardness arising in diplomatic and commercial corres- 
 pondence, from the two modes of dating, have not before now led to uniformity of 
 practice in this regard. But national pride, it must be remembered, often stickles 
 long on petty points. 
 
 Note (16), p. 20. 
 
 The Empress Eugenia of France, has addressed a circular to the "Princesses " 
 of Europe, suggesting the repair and even the rebuilding of the Church of the 
 Holy Sepulchre by a joint "subscription." Many diplomatic reasons will possibly 
 be ferreted out to show why the Queen of England should not take part — 
 munificently — in the movement. A side issue of the question when laid before the 
 keepers of the public conscience, may even be the extinction of the Anglo- 
 Prussian Jerusalem bishopric, as null and void from the very beginning. But in 
 reality, the Empress's plan is one by means of which the Christian West, and 
 especially England, might exert an admirable, civilizing influence upon the semi- 
 barbarous East. Philanthropists consider improved dwelling-places a means of 
 elevating the character of debased human beings. On a like principle, an edifice 
 of worthy dimensions and comely beauty, — in v^'hich order and cleanliness should 
 be strictly maintained by a strong police for so long a time as it may be necessary 
 — would help in no small measure ultimately to improve the moral character of the 
 mixed multitudes thai every year freijuent the supposed site of the Holy Sepulchre. 
 The sanction of the Sultan would of course be obtained for the execution of the 
 work. Let the side aisles be, as proposed, for the Greeks and Latins. Let the 
 grand central avenue be the possession of the rest — of the Teutons, let us call 
 them, among whom let English Christians be nobly conspicuous. — The ideality of 
 the West, occupied by innumerable projects, has become somewhat torpid to 
 appeals like this. But roused by the voice of "princesses" it may listen — and 
 perhaps at last produce action on the plan proposed. At all events, the suggestion 
 of the Empress is one more sign of an awakened spirit of unity in Christendom, 
 and indicates a way in which it might beautifully express itself. 
 
 Note (17), p. 21. 
 
 The President, after conducting his fellow-countrymen well through a gigantic 
 civil contest, had marked out for them a wise policy for the future. In the de- 
 struction of such a man, thus at the moment of success 
 
 " O'ermaster'd by the irony of fate,— ' 
 
 The last and greatest martyr of the cause, 
 Slain like Achilles at the Scaean gate, — 
 
30 
 
 TRUTH S RKSURRECTIONS. 
 
 the words of Napoleon III., in his Preface to the "Life of Julius Caesar," receive 
 an early additional illustration, so far as it is proved that Southern individuals — 
 I do not say Southern authorities — had anything to do with the act. " Heureux 
 les peuples qui les comprennent et les suivent ! (i.e., ceux qui leur tracent la voie 
 qu' ils doivent suivre, etc.). Malheur a ceux qui meconaissent et les combattent 1 
 lis font comme les Juifs, ils crucifient leur Messie ; ils sont aveugles et coupables : 
 aveugles, a suspendre le triomphe definitif dr bien ; coupables, car ils ne font que 
 retarder le progres, en entravant sa prompte et feconde application." 
 
 The theological allusion, casually made in this passage, has attracted the 
 serious attention of some of the Jewish remnant in Europe ; and has drawn forth 
 from M. Cremieux, president of the Israelite Alliance a solemn protest. The 
 unhesitating assertion of the Emperor-author will probably nevertheless create 
 here and there " deep searchings of heart " on the subject in question, with an effect 
 greater than any that would be produced by the words of a common missionary. 
 
 It will not be deemed out of place to .add here some striking remarks made 
 by Dr. Sterry Hunt, at the meeting of the TJew England Society at Montreal, in 
 April last. " In all ages, the notion of sacrifice has been interwoven with the 
 religious conviction of our race. In ruder times, it was an innocent, bleeding 
 victim to a vengeful God. A wise and more pious philosophy sees that it is in 
 mercy and not in vengeance the Great Father of all demands our choicest gifts, 
 and that when He withholds or withdraws, it is to teach us great truths, which 
 could not otherwise reach our imperfect natures. It is not only by the suffering 
 of the victim, but by the lesson to the survivors, that Divine Goodness accom- 
 plishes its work. One object which we may already discern through the darkness 
 with which He shrouds His purposes,, is that of showing to the nation and to the 
 world the horrible spirit of that institution which, in its death-agony, strikes down 
 our chief magistrate. The sum of all 'villanies' had stamed itself with every 
 crime, — theft, perjury, treason, and rebejlion. In the long-sufferings of thousands 
 of martyrs in .Southern prisons, aud in the massacre of the vanquished on many a 
 field, was to be seen its damning ! icurd ; but one thing was wanted to fill up the 
 measure of its iniquities, the parricidal blow v/hi<;h struck down the second father 
 of his country, one who 
 
 ' Had borne his faculties so irjeK, had been 
 So clear in his great office, .hat his virliies 
 Did plead like artels, trumpet-tongupd, against 
 The deep damnation of his taking-ofT.'" 
 
 Note (i8), p. 21. 
 
 The issue of the contest being now pretty clearly before us, I f>?fi a sati.>fac- 
 tion in putting en record here a brief extract from a public address, delivered by the 
 writer of the present note, in 1861, and iei)orted at the time in the daily journals: — 
 
 " We see our neighbours i the midst of an agony more stern than any they 
 have ever before experienced, — in a crisis indeed which was inevitalle, when we 
 call to mind, that from the outset of their independent history, two jirinriples, 
 diametrically opposed, were accepted as findamental in their organization. Of 
 those two principles we cannot doubt which is in harmony with truth and justice ; 
 we cannot doubt which will ultitnately triumph, whatever may be the result of the 
 imme<liate trial of strength. Let us hope, h*. ./ever, that this convulsion is 'the 
 beginning of the end ; ' that it is the comtn.'ncenient of the final throes through 
 which the moral, like the physical world in v.nrious parts of its'superficial crust, 
 passes, as ils internal unrest at that particui.Tr point dies out. Let us hope, that 
 the cloud will at no distant day disperse, which now darkens the view while the 
 work of change is in progress ; and that it will disclose the great Republic at one 
 again, jnirged from its deidly bane, with ".IHKRTY inscribed on its tiara, no lon^sr 
 on one side only, but fairly on its front." 
 
 Caxton Pre.'is: T. Hii.i., Pi inter, corner of King and Nelson Sts. 1865.