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he was miserable, she would be happy, though she was far away from her home.

F-You are quite right, Edith, she was far the happier of the two, because she had an inward testimony that she "pleased God."

And I hope, dear children, you will strive to possess the same testimony, and by the grace of your Saviour so live, that you may have the peace and joy which the testimony of a good conscience never fails to give. D. H.

DR. DÖLLINGER HONOURED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.-The Munich professor, excommunicated from the Church of Rome for not receiving the latest-coined doctrine of Romanism, has had the honorary degree of D.C.L. bestowed upon him by the University of Oxford. Some opposition was given to the granting of the degree by the Romanizers in the University through their sympathy with superstition, and also by a few of the Rationalists on the broader ground of latitudinarianism. One of the latter, in apologizing for his own opposition to the granting of the degree, has said: "It must not be supposed that the opponents of the grant have, with one or two exceptions, any sympathy with Dr. Döllinger's opponents, or anything but a feeling of satisfaction at the attitude which he has taken. Roman Catholics, when they comment on the dogma of Infallibility, always say that we do not understand them. I trust that I do not; for to my unenlightened mind the dogma seems to be Buddhism in its most debased form." Might not this writer be asked, If a learned Romish ecclesiastic sacrifies position, associations, and all that men hold dear, in opposing an effort of his own Church to introduce "Buddhism in its most debased form " into Western civilization, is not such an opponent of a heathen revival as worthy of a D.C.L. as the scholars, soldiers, and travellers upon whom the University of Oxford has bestowed this degree from time to time? Dr. Döllinger's party grows rapidly on the Continent. Munich, Augsburg, and Nuremberg, have had their musterings to protest against the new doctrine of the Vatican Council. The Kings of Bavaria and Wurtemberg do not intend to allow the infallibility dogma to be promulgated in their dominions with their sanction. Surely, under these circumstances, Protestants cannot be indifferent to the new "protest" against the latest novelty in audacious untruth which has issued from the Church of Rome !

THE IRISH CHURCH SYNOD. The first Synod of the Disestablished Irish Church has concluded its sittings. The debates were

very protracted, and at times feelings ran very high. Not a few feared that the difference of opinion might end in division and secession, and that the Protestant Episcopalians of Ireland would be split up into two, three, or more rival denominations. Such a catastrophe was greatly to be deplored, but happily has been prevented by the good temper and wisdom of the leading members of the Synod. Disunion would have gratified the hostile Romanism of Ireland, and would have retarded the progress of truth in that part of the United Kingdom for years to come. The friends of the Gospel should, therefore, be pleased that the danger has been averted, and that the Irish Church is now safely launched as a disestablished denomination. It was pleasing to see the religious earnestness of this new assembly, and the marked prominence that was given in the debates to important doctrinal questions over mere economic and financial arrangements. The tone of the assembly, moreover, was unmistakably Protestant and antiRitualistic. The Irish Church has been noted since the Reformation for a strong anti-Papistical spirit. This, no doubt, has been fostered by the constant presence of an intensely bigoted and superstitious Popery. Notwithstanding that Irish Protestants have a knowledge of Romanism which makes them thoroughly dislike it as a religious system, yet a few clergymen have had the temerity to introduce into Irish Churches the Romanizing practices of English Ritualists. That their efforts must end in failure is very evident; and, if additional proof were required, it is to be had in connection with the debates of the Irish Church Synod. In a country where they have so much of the genuine Popery of Rome they have no need of the mock-turtle provided by the Purchases and Mackonochies of England. It is greatly to be desired that the united Protestantism of Ireland-Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Methodist should present a bold, strong front to that powerful system which has proved an enemy to Ireland, and to the truth.

IN

N many respects Rome is the most wonderful city in the world. Jerusalem is more sacred, Paris is more beautiful, and London is more populous by far; but considering the prominent and influential part which Rome has played in the drama of human affairs for a period of more than two thousand five hundred years, the interest which attaches to it is of the very highest kind. It is of this most remarkable of cities that an eloquent historian has said: "On the ruins of the capitol, the former mistress of the world, a new empire arose, founded VOL. I. AUGUST, 1871.

not on

arms but on religious reverence, which at one period embraced a wider dominion than had ever been conquered by the arms of the consuls. Rome, in consequence, possesses an interest and exhibits a magnificence which no other city in the world can boast, for it contains the remains of genius and the monuments of art, alike of ancient and modern times, and is peopled with the shades of Cicero and Virgil, of Tasso and Alfieri, of Raphael and Michael Angelo. The amphitheatre of Titus still remains in ruined grandeur beside the obelisk

I

of Thebes, but it looks down on St. John Lateran, from whence so 'many laws have issued to the Christian world; the horses of Praxiteles yet adorn the eternal city, but they front the Palace of the Quirinal, the abode of the supreme Pontiff; the ancient pavement of the Sacred Way, furrowed by the wheels of a hundred triumphs, again, after a burial of fourteen hundred years, is exposed to the light of the sun, but it leads only to the modern capitol, where barefooted friars sing vespers in the remains of the temple of Jupiter! The columns of Trajan and Antonine still surmount the ancient plain of the Campus Martius, but they adjoin the crowded and brilliant scene of the modern Corso; the tomb of Adrian has been bespoiled, but was so to adorn the fane of the Vatican-the dome of St. Peter's, the noblest monument which the hands of man have ever raised to the purpose of religion. Before a second Rome appears in the world, a second Republic must have been followed by a second Empire, a second My. thology, by a second Popedom; a second Forum, by a second St. Peter's; and the genius of modern Europe, drawn to a centre by one conquering State, must have been succeeded by another night of a thousand years, during which superstition has subjected the whole civilized world to its sway."

It is very certain, then, that according to these requirements, a "second Rome" is what the world shall never see. But looking at the signs of the times in connection with recent changes, this wonderful old city is likely enough to appear in a new character and under greatly altered aspects. The overthrow of the temporal power of the Pope and the political incorporation of Rome with the Italian kingdom, are events of momentous significance, likely to have most important religious issues. The world has seen Pagan Romeregal, republican, and imperial; and for more than a thousand years mankind has been familiar with Papal Rome, with its spiritual usurpations and blasphemous pretensions. And now what next? Shall it be Christian Rome, free and evangelical? God grant that it may, and that like Saul, the persecutor, after his conversion, it may preach the faith which it once destroyed!

The Papal Government before its fall was the worst-constituted in its form, and the most oppressive in its rule, of any to be found in civilized countries. That honest English statesman and out-spoken diplomatist, the late Lord Palmerston, spoke of Rome, under the dominion of Pope and Cardinals, as "the

plague-spot of Europe." Not to mention that neither civil nor religious liberty existed in the States of the Church under the sway of "the Triple Tyrant," the material condition of Rome was anything but flourishing during the long misrule of celibate priests. While tourists from England looked wonderingly at the remains of the Forum, Coliseum, and other antiquities of the old Pagan City; and while astonished at the ecclesiastical edifices of the Papal City, especially at the immense basilica, St. Peter's, they failed not to wonder that the only street in Rome which has a side pavement for foot-passengers is the Corso, and that most of the streets are disgracefully dirty. As for manufactures and trade, they are SO insignificant, in a commercial point of view, that they are not worth mentioning. It is true that the fine arts have flourished in Rome; but it is because the city, like Athens in the days of Paul, has been "wholly given to idolatry." As for the industrial arts, the most remunerative of them has been the manufacture of relics. The supply of " pieces of the true cross,' "thorns from our Saviour's crown, and "sacred" fragments of a kindred kind, has been exceedingly profitable to the monks who have been engaged in this most remarkable trade. The great depôt for articles of this order is the basilica Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, the church in which the golden rose was annually blessed by the Pope. The lack of elementary education for the lower classes of the people has long been notorious, whilst literature and science have had the works of their great masters placed in the index of prohibited books in the city where Galileo was forced by the rack of the Inquisition to recant his astronomical heresy. Even the charitable institutions of Rome tell a sad tale of the morals of the people who had the Pope for their king. The principal hospital, that of Santo Spirito, combines a foundling hospital, a lunatic asylum, and an infirmary. The foundling hospital receives about eight hundred infants annually, but it is said a large proportion perish in the institution. The poor lunatics are treated systematically with great brutality and violence; whilst the infirmary is uncleanly, and badly ventilated. The number of stabbing cases is shockingly great, and presents a dreadful picture of the state of public morals. Under the government of the King of Italy it is expected that Rome will improve in some of these particulars, especially in such as refer to sanitary laws, police, and commerce. If the work of religious reformation should go on, as we hope

it will, the effects will be seen, of course, in the improved morality of the people.

The fall of the Papacy, as a political power, removes one great obstacle, hitherto insurmountable, to the evangelization of the population of Rome. While the Pope-King ruled, there was no toleration for Protestantism in any of its forms. The fall of the temporal power has been followed by the inestimable blessing of religious liberty, for the citizens of this 66 no mean city." Gavazzi and Hyacinthe are free, under the Italian flag, to lift up their voices in denunciation of the errors and abominations of the Church in which they were powerful and eloquent preachers. Ministers of the venerable Waldensian Church, which for centuries has kept the torch of truth lighted in Alpine valleys, are but too glad at last to preach to them "that are at Rome also." Native Italian Evangelists, and missionaries of various Protestant denominations, English and American, in the name of their God are lifting up their banners in the place where Paul preached in his own hired house. The Wesleyan Missionary Society has taken possession, in the name of the Lord Jesus, of the Eternal City. As in London, the first Methodist chapel was an old foundry adapted to the purposes of public worship, so in Rome the first Methodist chapel is an old billiard-room, altered into shape for the use of Gospel hearers and spiritual worshippers. What will be its history? It will be written and read with interest years hence-centuries hence.

The fall of the temporal power is not equivalent to the overthrow of Popery as a religious system. If the Pope has ceased to be the King of Rome, the Church of which he is the head has not ceased to be the Church of the Roman people. They have voted by the plebiscite for annexation with the Italian Kingdom, but they have not voted for incorporation with Protestant Churches. It must not be forgotten that Rome is still crowded with priests and friars, that Jesuits and Ultramontanes are numerous there, vigilant and busy; that the basilicas and churches in which a solemn ritual is performed with all the gorgeous and captivating accessories which the highest art can supply, belong, without exception, to the Papal Church; and that still may be met in the streets and thoroughfares imposing processions, in which priests and choristers arrayed in symbolic robes, march to the music of solemn litanies, and kneeling crowds pay reverent and superstitious homage to the

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"Host," which though only a consecrated wafer, they have been taught to worship as a god. Nor should it be unremembered, in calculating upon the future of Rome, that the Pope himself is still an occupant of the Vatican, and has conceded to him a sort of shadowy sovereignty by the Italian Government, which has dethroned him from substantial power. The part of Rome which is left to "His Holiness," (as the pretended successor of St. Peter wishes to be styled,) is what is called the Leonine city. It comprises the district on the right bank of the Tiber, known as the Borgo, and contains the palace of the Vatican, the basilica of St. Peter's, the hospital of Santo Spirito, and the Castle of St. Angelo. Here the Pope is left free to exercise his spiritual rule as the Sovereign Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. He is to receive the honours of royalty, but not to exercise its powers, except that he may accredit nuncios to foreign powers, and receive ambassadors from them. He is without an army, without civil subjects whom he can tax, but he is promised an adequate stipend for his support by the Italian King and Government whom he has excommunicated. Against all this Pius IX., who is involved in these reverses and humiliations, bitterly protests. His crafty minister, Cardinal Antonelli, has appealed for help to the several Roman Catholic Powers of Europe, but hitherto without success. No doubt those adherents of the Pope who think that temporal sovereignty is necessary to the due exercise of his spiritual functions cling to the hope of a Papal restoration. Their expectations, very probably, are placed principally upon France. They think, plainly enough, that if that unhappy country had once more a strong and reactionary Government of its own, that it would be sure to champion the cause of the fallen Pope. Whatever ground they may have for such expectations, it is obviously the duty of the Christian Church to enter at once the " great door and effectual " which Providence has so wonderfully opened in Rome. "Work while it is day!" is plainly the suggestion of wisdom with regard to our present duty, whether or not a night of Papal re-enthronement, in which no man can work, shall again darken the City of the Seven Hills. The Wesleyan Missionary Secretaries have made a special appeal for help on behalf of the new mission to Rome. We trust that it will meet with a liberal and hearty response.

The locality of the new Methodist preaching-room is thus indicated by the Rev. H. J. Piggott B.A., who has had the honour of

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preaching the first Methodist sermon in the city of the Popes :

"The visitor who wished to find our 'hired room' would have to strike off from the Corso at the thronged and spacious Piazza Colonna, and follow that winding artery of Roman life which leads from this Piazza to that of the Pantheon; then skirting to the left that magnificent relic of Imperial Rome, keep straight ahead down the long busy street of the Rotunda, until he arrived at the Theatre Argentina; just beyond the theatre a narrower street, the

Via dei Barbieri, crosses that of the Rotunda at right angles; and here, a few paces down, lies the Hall in which we have to-day opened our Methodist mission in the Eternal City. It is

not an 'upper room,' except in so far as that phrase has been hallowed to signify the lowly beginnings of high and sacred work. Our first meetingplace in

Rome is, on the contrary, a ground-floor, opening abruptly on the street, and, until we took it, was used as a billiard-room. It will seat comfortably about one hundred and fifty

6

people. There is a smaller room at the back, where we hope that before long Roman converts, called saints,' may attest their experience of that 'Spirit of adoption' of which Paul wrote to their fathers. The position of the hall relatively to the population is good. Hard by is the Ghetto, the famous Jews' quarter. Then not far off is the principal bridge by which the Trastevere communicates with the city; that outlying suburb beyond the Tiber, (as the name imports,) whose fierce, powerful, and indomitable population, as it

furnished to
Garibaldi in
the siege
of '49 his
staunchest
militia, and
as through
the subse-
quent years
of Papal
oppression
it has been
the dread

of French
Zouaves and
Pontifical
gensd'armes,

so now since
the great
change has
been the
most eager to
obtain from
the colpor-
teurs the
WordofGod,
and has con-
tributed the
largest quota
of hearers to
the Protes-

tant preach

ing-halls. Immediately around, too, is a dense population of artisans and small shopkeepers, the classes we generally find most ready to listen to and accept the Gospel." M'C.