"No evil has happened here!" said Metta.

"But why art thou, so plenty daughter? Earnest, what means the terrors of thy looks? Have robbers broken into my house, and are all my treasures gone?" cried the wealthy merchant, whose thoughts still ran upon his riches.

"Be not so anxious for the treasures of this world, my father," answered Metta; "there have been no robbers here, but darker and stranger visitors!" and she and Earnest together related to the merchant the wonders they had witnessed. The old man heard them with amazement;

those old manuscripts which 1 brought from that forbidden cham

"Stay!" said Metta, laying her hand on the youth's arm as he rose to fulfil his purpose; "there may be as much good as evil in these old manuscripts; and, as for the gold, it would gladden the hearts of many poor. Let us turn it from the service of the evil one to that of charity."

Earnest agreed to her words, and also promised the old merchant that what he had told should never be revealed to the world on condition of returning him half the legacy and giving his consent to his union with Metta.

"The legacy is all thine own," replied Von Grouper," together with all that I have gained on it by trade. Besides it, I have more than enough for myself, and a goodly portion for my daughter, whom thou shalt have with my blessing, and, as an atonement for my sin, I will build a church before my death to the honour of the Holy Virgin." And so the old merchant did; for the monks say that his son-in-law could never infect him with his heresy. But the ancient house which he inhabited was never silent nor solitary after the great wedding, to which all Metta's former sui

but his terror seemed greater far than theirs, and when the story was finished he crossed himself several times and repeated a short prayer, then rising, hastily he shut the door, and, calling them both to him said, with a conscience-stricken countenance,"My children, it is no marvel that such fearful things should happen in my house, for I am a grievous sinner, seeing that I have taken to myself the portion of the orphan. Earnest Von Tailler, thy father, was a man of most pious and liberal disposition; and once, when his wealth was but small, he gave the half of all he possessed to a poor youth at Venice to ransom his father from the hands of the Turks. This youth in time became a great merchant, and died about seven years ago, leaving the half of all his wealth to you as a return for the sum given him by your father; but the messenger confided it to me, and the greatness of the wealth tempted me so much that I have concealed the matter from and, by fraud and deceit, obtained you, the whole legacy for myself. But for this crime I have been much visited, my conscience gave me no rest day or night; and it was in order to pacify it that I made that proposal to you yesterday, hoping it would not be refused on account of my daughter, for I have long known the affection that subsists between you; but this fearful visitation is a warning to me never again to covet that which is used by the evil one as his strongest temptation."

"True," said Earnest, "for it was with gold he tempted me; but I will cast it into the fire also, together with

tors were invited. And a nobler company never was seen in Prague; but, whether matrimony or the adventures of that strange day had changed the mind of Earnest, the chronicle cannot tell; but certain it is, that though he still loved letters and hated commerce, he was never known to write a single verse.

There was a strange story current in all the cities of Germany concerning one known by the name of the black Bookseller, who went about seeking for learned men to write for his master at Leipsic. It was said he had been seen with Erasmus when he was writing his Praise of Folly, and with Luther when engaged in his translation of the Bible; but from him he received such a lecture in Latin as made him leave the house very quickly; but who he was or whence he came it was never known, but many supposed him to have been the same as he who had tempted the Poet of Prague.

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THE CHURCH -HER STATE AND PROSPECTS.

Ir is with unfeigned regret that we find ourselves compelled to abandon a resolution at which we some time ago arrived, not to notice any more, in the pages of this Magazine, such contests as might be going on within the bosom of the Church, however keenly alive we ourselves might be as individuals to the disastrous consequences in which, unless put a stop to, they must terminate. We had flattered ourselves that the waters of strife would gradually subside of their own accord; that a slight concession here, and a little yielding there, would bring the extremes of parties nearer to one another; that a sense of what is due to the great end which all profess alike to be seeking would lead to a comparative disregard_of the means through which it is sought; and that the bigotry which, let it take what direction it may, postpones essential principle to trifling detail, would pass away and be succeeded by a holier feeling. Not one of these, our Christian hopes, has been realised. The evil, instead of diminishing, increases from day to day. There is a war around us now, not of opinions only, but of practices; which are approved or condemned, recommended or denounced, not according as we live under episcopal superintendence or otherwise, but according as our homes chance to be established in the diocese of Rochester, or that of London, or that of Winchester, or that of Exeter. The unity of the Church for which we daily pray has no longer any existence. The bond of peace also is broken; and bishops, and clergy, and people, are all unhappily at strife: some of them, we doubt not, in perfect honesty of purpose; others, it is to be feared, through vain-glory, or something worse; if in a Christian community a motive worse than vain-glory can operate. How is it possible for those who love the Church in sincerity, who were born in her communion and hope in her communion to die, to refrain from expressing, let the consequences be what they may, an opinion in a case so flagrant and so melancholy? We, at least, feel that, under existing circumstances, con

siderations of personal ease must give way to a higher principle; and therefore have we put a restraint upon our own inclinations; and, therefore, descend we once more into an arena from which few, let them choose what side they may, or wield their weapons with ever so much of caution and dexterity, can hope to come forth again unscathed-in feeling, or in reputation, or in both.

And first let us endeavour, as an act of pure justice, to separate, as well as we can, both the motives and the proceedings of the movementparty, as it now shews itself in the Church, from the motives and proceedings of the individuals with whom the movement itself originated. For there is as wide a difference in these respects between the Wards and Newmans of 1845, and the Kebles and Roses of 1832, as there was in 1832 between the views of the same Roses and Kebles on the one hand, and the opinions of Baptist Noel and his friend Sir William Dunbar of Aberdeen on the other. We do not mean to say that the Roses and Kebles of 1832 may not have been too sensitively alive to the importance of the points which they brought at that time prominently into notice. They would have emancipated themselves altogether from the common infirmities of human nature, had the case been otherwise; for when men give themselves up to explain the minute differences which distinguish system from system, either in religion or in politics, they are apt to lose sight of the fundamental truths on which all systems are alike built up; and hence it comes to pass that the advocate of truth not in the abstract, very often, through the mere exercise of the disputative faculty, degenerates into a bigot. But besides that we should be loath to bring any such charge against the Kebles and Roses of 1832, the circumstances which, in some sort, made them what they were, had a character peculiarly their

own.

Let us remind our readers of the nature of these circumstances; and let us avail ourselves in so doing of the words of one who has not left the matter uninvestigated, and ap

pears to be explaining his own views on this and other grave and important subjects, through the medium of a tale which is now in the course of publication:*

may put an end to the connexion that
now subsists between Church and State;
but the Church itself he cannot destroy,
if any pains at all be taken to defend
her. Be it our part to prepare the public
mind for the crisis which approaches.
We will shew the people why they are
Churchmen, and not Baptists, nor Pres-
byterians, nor yet Roman Catholics. We
will explain to them how it comes to
pass that they stand, as Christians, on a
different footing altogether from the mem-
bers of the various sects or churches
which surround them. Let us put our
shoulders to the wheel; and out of this
present evil, be it as extreme and endur.
ing as it may, good will eventually arise.
For a hundred and fifty years and more
the English people have supported their
Church, not because she is a pure
Church, but because she is the Esta
blishment. And their teachers, reposing
under the shadow of the law, have for-
gotten to make the people aware that
their position as an established clergy is
to the Church altogether extrinsic,- an
arrangement out of which the clergy be-
come, as individuals, perhaps more useful
to the state, more influential in their
own neighbourhoods, and more inde-
pendent in their worldly circumstances,
than they might otherwise be; but which
neither adds to the strength of the
Church's claim upon the obedience of
good men, nor takes away from it. The
Church existed and flourished in the
same doctrine, and discipline, and polity,
which appertain to her now, before it was
possible for her to enter into any alliance
with any civil government upon earth;
and, if it be God's will to bring about in
this land a severance of the tie, she shail
so exist again.'

"Meanwhile," says the author of The Subaltern, in other words, the Rev. Mr. Gleig, in his new work entitled "Things Old and New," "another movement, Deither less important in itself, nor, at the moment, less enthusiastically greeted, was begun elsewhere. The Church, threatened, as some of her most devoted sons believed, by the king's government in parliament, and the great body of the government supporters out of doors, awoke, as it were, from slumber. An expression, uttered, doubtless, without due consideration of what it meant, went through the land like a shock of electricity. It was heard amid the cloisters of Christ Church, and the quadrangle of Trinity gave back the sound, that the first minister of the crown had recommended, from his place in the House of Lords, that the bishops should set their house in order. Now a phrase such as this, even if it be original, is startling enough. When all who hear it remember that it is a quotation from the Word of God, they listen to it with horror. There was scarce a hearthstone in England, where be who sat beside it, if he could read at all, failed, as soon as the tidings reached him, to search for the passage. He found it, and, filling up the blank which the noble earl had left, discovered how the prophet went on to say to the king, Thou shalt die, and not live!' Men read, and, taking note of the spirit which was then abroad, received, whatever their own views or wishes might be, the statesman's recommendation for much more than it was worth. Some shouted as if the Church's downfal were at hand. Others knitted their brows, and took to the study of Clarendon, as if the learned historian had played the prophet too, and that the future were to be guessed at from a recurrence to things past. A third, though at that time an infinitesimally small party, looked beyond the mere political considerations which seemed to engross the attention of others, and turned their thoughts to higher things.

"He may threaten, and accomplish his threats, so far as the temporalities of the clergy are concerned,' said they; 'he

"And well and faithfully did the little band of self-denying and devoted men who undertook this great work, go forward, for awhile, with their enterprise. From week to week the press put forth a tract, which spoke to the hearts and understandings of the multitude, in language as novel as it was earnest. You saw these closely printed pamphlets, these single sheets of coarse whity-brown paper, grasped at by the noble and the learned; spread out upon the tables of the fair; received into the Templar's study, the attorney's office, the tradesman's back-shop, the yeoman's parlour; conned over, reflected upon, discussed, in all circles; while from time to time the hearty declaration came forth,

*"Things Old and New "is the first of a series of original works, which Mr. Moore, of Wellington Street, North, is bringing out in weekly numbers, under the title of The Novel Times. We do not profess quite to understand the meaning of the title; but, if the tales keep up the tone which characterises that with which they have begun, they will communicate more than mere amusement to their readers, and deserve, whether they obtain it or not, a very wide circulation.

'Well, we never knew till now, why it
was our duty to attend the church, and
not the meeting!' Perhaps the whole
history of literary undertakings offers no
parallel to the success which attended
the first appearance of the Tracts for the
Times. And well would it have been for
the cause of truth, as well as for the
peace of the Church and the influence of
her ministers, had the same spirit of
moderation which distinguished them,
while yet the series was new, continued
to regulate and restrain the zeal of their
compilers to the end. But we are anti-
cipating."

To the truth of this statement we
as cordially subscribe, as we acknow-
ledge the power of the language in
which it is put forth. The move-
ment in the Church, which has so
entirely outrun the designs and wishes
of the few good men who began it,
was, at the outset, a mere measure
of defence; an effort not only justifi-
able, but necessary, to make the great
body of the English people aware
why they were members of the
Church of England, and not members
either of the Church of Rome or of
any one of the three denominations
of Protestant Dissenters. It was un-
dertaken in the belief that, ere
many days elapsed, there would
be no Established Church any where
throughout the British dominions.
And it had for its object the keeping
together of the flock after the shep-
herds should have been put down by
act of parliament from their high
places, and so continuing THE CHURCH
in England, as, through God's great
mercy, she has been preserved in
Scotland and in the United States of
America; and as she will by and by

find herself in Canada and the rest
of those enormous colonies which,
by the very order of things, must, in
time (may it be yet far distant), claim
and assert their right to self-govern-
ment. Let us not, therefore, in any
remark which we may hazard, be
understood as heaping censure upon
the originators of a scheme which
has miscarried, through no fault of
theirs, but of their followers. With
quite as much of reason might we
condemn the labours of Dr. Chal-
mers, while as yet he went from place
to place, the great advocate of Esta-
blishments

Dr. Chalmers was then a sound theo-
logian. He pleaded for the Church
as for a spiritual body, distinct, in-
deed, from the State, but not in op-
position to it; and with marvellous
eloquence set forth the benefits which
accrue to both from an alliance en-
tered into in a spirit of mutual con-
cession. But Dr. Chalmers ceased to
be a sound theologian as soon as he
lost sight of the very principle for
which he had so successfully con-
tended, and, in a new-born zeal for
the Church's independence, sought
to raise her above the State in mat-
ters purely secular. And so has it
befallen with that party in the Eng-
lish Church which, forgetting its own
principles or the principles of the
men who called it into existence, has
outstripped all reason, all judgment,
all consistency-may we not add, all
regard to truth? yea, even to that
humblest of all kinds and degrees of
honour, which compels a man to
adhere to the terms of an agreement
to which, in a court of law, or before
competent witnesses, he has set his
hand. Let us not, therefore, in the
remarks which we are about to make,
be understood as condemning the
originators of a movement to which
the spirit of the age gave the im-
pulse. Perhaps even of that we may
believe that it was too eager, too
sectarian, too much occupied about
things comparatively unimportant;
but however this may be, the diffi
culties and troubles into which the
Church has fallen are no more at-
tributable, in fairness, to the design
which, with some at least of those en-

gaged in it, concocted the idea of pub
lishing Tracts for the Times, than the

recent schism in the Kirk of Scotland
is owing to the zeal and great ability
with which, in times of trouble,
Chalmers, and Candlish, and others,
stood forward in defence of the Church
which they have since abandoned.

To him who in a candid spirit shall sit down to examine the progress of events, there will be no difficulty whatever in tracing up the praiseworthy purposes of 1834 to the frightful results which in 1845 we are condemned to witness. It was the design of the originators of the movement to educate the English

from the Voluntary Principle in re-
ligion. But we cannot do this, for

as contradistinguished people in regard to church matters;

to shew them what the Church is, as
contradistinguished from other bodies

of professed Christians; to convince
them that, as the fact of her having
been once established made the
Church neither more nor less pure
than she would have been had she
never entered into alliance with the
State at all, so the severance of the
tie would in no respect alter her
character or diminish her claim to
the respect and love of her children.
Now, this could be done only by
pointing out the differences in polity,
ritual, and faith, which keep the
Church distinct, as well from Rome
as from Geneva; and by demon-
strating, so far as the matter might
admit of a demonstration, that the
polity, ritual, and faith of the Church
of England agree in all essential re-
spects with those of the Church in
the primitive ages. The arguments
adduced by the original teachers of
these things may be good, or other-
wise; but nothing can be more
certain than this, that, having a par-
ticular object in view, and that ob-
ject being to keep the English people

true to their Church after the State
should have cast her off, there were
no other means of attaining that ob-
ject than those which the writers of
the first Tracts for the Times actually
adopted, namely, to argue these
points with all the subtlety and skill
of which they might be masters, and
to enforce them upon the attention
of their readers by continual reitera-

tion.

between their own Church and the
Church as it existed in the days of
Clement and Ignatius. Observe, that
there was no question between them
and the public in regard to those
great saving truths which are ad-
mitted by all sects of Christians,-
the Unitarians (if, indeed, we be jus
tified in speaking of that sect as a
Christian sect at all) alone excepted.
It was not because she believed in the
atonement, and the resurrection, and
the necessity of Divine grace towards
the accomplishment of the salvation
of individual men, that these zealous
friends of the Church proclaimed her
title to the reverence of the English
people. In these respects she thinks
in common with all manner of Pro-
testant sects, and can hardly be said
to differ from the Church of Rome
herself, sadly as the latter overlays
the truth by the saint-worship which
she encourages. But it was on ac-
count of her polity and worship;
because of her government by bish-
ops, priests, and deacons, and the
extreme beauty and decency of her
ritual and forms of prayer; it was
on these accounts, according to the
authors of this movement, that the
Church lay claim to the people's re-
verence; and her claim was the
stronger-at least they strove to
make it so appear-because the go-
vernment of the Church by bishops,
priests, and deacons, is an arrange-
ment not of man's institution, but of
Christ's. Let our readers observe,
that we ourselves offer no opinion on
this subject. We are merely relating
facts-facts which we defy the most
incredulous to dispute,-namely, that
it was by this line of argument
that the originators of the move-
ment undertook to keep the Church
true to herself, in adversity as
well as in prosperity, and endea-
voured to fortify themselves and
others against the enticements of
interest or of passion. For, if it
be true that the constitution of
the English Church is apostolical,
and that those of the various Pro-
testant sects which differ from her is
not apostolical, then have we ground
enough for adhering to her, should
she be disestablished to-morrow;
whereas the grievous and palpable
errors of the Church of Rome, in re-
gard to the faith and practice of indi-
viduals, must for ever guard us from

Again: when men sit down to prove the truth of such a theorem as this, they pass in review before them the customs and habits of thinking of all by-gone ages; depending, as is natural, much more upon the customs and habits of thinking of the earliest than on those of the latest of these ages. The authors of the movement did this. They looked first into the pages of the New Testament, and satisfied-at least themselves-that with the incidental accounts which are given there of the outward constitution, not less than of the faith and practices of the Apos tolic Church, the Church of England entirely agrees. They proceeded next to inquire how matters were conducted in the ages immediately succeeding those of the apostles, and ascertained, or told their readers that they had ascertained, there, in like manner, the most perfect agreement