ducted the affairs of their parish, for the zeal with which they crowded their sacred edifice on all the occasions when its doors were opened for divine worship, for the liberality with which they contributed to all the charities of the church; in short, for every thing that could indicate the prosperity and effectual training of a flock. And yet it soon occurred that a change came over the condition

mined iron will. As far as he had a right, he would have the benefit of. it to its utmost stretch. He would not be thwarted in his purposes. If other means failed, he had no reluctance to resort to all the power he deemed to have been conferred by his office and position. Many were the strifes into which these traits led him, and painful were the changes which they frequently occasioned in his lot. His advancement to the priest-of their affairs. Perhaps it was because of hood certainly was not calculated to diminish his reliance on himself-perhaps it was for his estimate of his rights. As certainly was some other cause-the rector gradually it apparent that in whatever other respects he abandoned the views in which he had been had been improved while earning the "good educated, and which he was supposed to degree," there had been no increase of dis-love, and taught such things as alarmed his trust of self. quiet flock. They had been instructed by Rapidly was I made to follow him through all their previous pastors to hold to the docthe earlier part of his career, including atrines inculcated by the Church of CHRIST subordinate position in the faculty of a college before Augustine theorized concerning the then struggling for a life and strength which Divine Decrees, and Calvin, with fiery and happily it has since obtained, and in all his persecuting zeal, insisted on belief in personal positions was I caused to see how his chief Election and Reprobation, and the attendant difficulties, and, in some instances the occa-dogmas. And if they heard aright, their, sion of the dissolution of the professional connections he had formed, were due to his resolute determination to tolerate nothing but his own will and way.

spiritual pride was telling them they had all along been in the deepest error. They had gone too far back in their efforts to get at truth. The continental reformers were better and more enlightened than the holy Fathers who lived near apostolic days. It was not to Jerusalem, and Antioch, and Ephesus, they were to look for counsellors and guides; but to Geneva should their eyes and hearts be turned, and from the improvements of the sixteenth century should they learn what Ignatius, Polycarp, and Irenæus certainly did not teach, and concerning which they probably had no conception. The people were disturbed. Like the men of Athens, and with better reason, they exclaimed, "Thou bringest certain strange things to our ears." The pastor could not brook the question of his superior knowledge and better light. To question, was to deny his information and his rights. He could not endure such virtual interference as was embraced in a friendly caution, or in gentle advice, even though it came from men whose counsel and

At length, I saw him established in a flourishing church in a great metropolis-for in my dream, years transpired in an equal number of brief minutes. He succeeded one "whose praise is in all the churches," and who subsequently was deemed fit to be elevated to an apostle's chair and power, and who adorns even the high dignity with which the elevation is connected. The youth had now been transformed into the maturer man. Experience, some of which had been far from pleasant, was presumed to have taught him much. He was starting in a new and more promising portion of his career. He had every assurance of the respect, and even attachment, of a people who by several distinguished predecessors (every one of whom, by the way, are now occupants of seats in the House of Bishops,) had been taught the best of principles in the most careful ways, and been led quietly on in a regular advance-opinions their former rectors had habitually ment in the knowledge and practice of "the truth as it is in Jesus." They were a people eminent for the harmony in which they con

sought and valued, and whose wisdom and discretion had caused them to be selected for the most important offices of trust in the in

stitutions of the Church. His will, as well as his views, must be law; and because of the interference, as he construed it, the objectors should hear him advocate the peculiar doctrines of Calvin with greater earnestness, and with more of expansion of the obnoxious features. The church was his. He would not even condescend to ask whether his people would hesitate to believe he was nearer right than the venerated men who from the same pulpit had so often and decidedly taught them the reverse of the things he uttered.

power-with a proper reference to repentance and faith, as necessary pre-requisites to the devout and healthy participation in their hallowed benefits.

Had he stopped there, all would yet have been well. But to stop, was not in accordance with the character of his mind. To ultraism and change he seemed always to be looking for the peace and rest which, perhaps because of the spirit with which he sought it, he could never find. The services of his church were altered. At first it was appointed that on Sunday certain portions of the Liturgy should be said at an unwonted hour; and then, in an after part of the day, worship should be resumed at the point at which previously it had terminated; and then, again,

departed from. The people, such as retained their connection with the parish, looked on and wondered; but many sought for other pastors whose ways and plans were more in accordance with the regularity and system of the Church, and who manifested less of selfwill and more of meekness in their designs and efforts. The effect was painfully apparent. The congregation was so much

Where, as in our land, a choice is freely given, the consequences of such a course are certain. His leading men-they who had supervised the erection of the edifice, and been constant worshippers before its altar-it was arranged that this system should be driven away more by the manner in which their kindness had been met, than by the alarming views of their rector-sought for other ecclesiastical ties, and found in another effort to erect another temple to the honor of GOD, and, in another spiritual director, the peace, and comfort, and instruction, the recent absence of which had been the subject of such bitter lamentations. In the progress of my dream, I was hur-diminished that it was deemed expedient to ried on a few years further. The self-willed pastor, with a diminished flock, still worshipped in their loved house of prayer. But why now are things so altered? A different position of the pulpit has been introduced. The desk has been entirely dispensed with. The chancel arrangements are so disposed that a due prominence may be given to the altar, and in all the acts of worship the priest may turn towards it. But an alteration greater still is discernable in the themes and efforts of the preacher. Calvin is now as much overlooked as he before was valued. The question is no more, what said the continental reformers? but, what did the Fathers teach? Heats and frames of mind, and mere feeling, as inculcated by the adherents of the excitement school of religionists, were not dwelt upon, as of old, in a light which seemed to make them, in prescribed forms and ways, necessary to eternal happiness; but in their stead were placed the sacraments and their mysterious efficacy and

VOL, VII. 1. *

remove the galleries. The income of the parish was so reduced that annual subscriptions for hundreds of dollars had to be raised from among the remaining adherents of one who had pursued courses so remarkable and so unlike and contradictory of each other. Debts accumulated; and poverty of means was helping on a desolation which was become as apparent as was once, within the same walls, the prosperity and life which gladdened the hearts of every beholder. The rector was troubled; but his will was iron still..

Daily morning and evening prayers were celebrated. The thing was right. It was a return to the usage of better days. It promised to counteract the effects of more questionable proceedings. But alas! there was a fatality at work again. The rector must do something that should be recognised as his own. His restless mind must add a new device to the steady sober arrangements of the Church. And hence a sort of confession

al was established! And now a new turn) But his self-confidence and self-will were inwas given to the instructions of the pulpit. terposed. True to his usual line of conduct, Confession to the priest is first recommended although he was but the representative of as a thing tending to spiritual profit, and its others, he would have his own way or he importance gradually increased until, finally, would have nothing. He obtained his end, it is urged in the light of an indispensable but with it had to take the consequences also. duty a thing to be always connected with His associates thought his conduct had, to repentance. Of course, the power and grace say the least, the aspect of treachery. Their of absolution were amplified to the same limited confidence in him was therefore more extent and so it happened that he who had than shaken. Another week transpired, and vowed to "be ready with all faithful diligence he had assumed the duties in the General to banish and drive away from the Church Convention with which he had been intrusted. all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary But here again was the same intrusion of his to God's word," through a disposition to be private views and wishes to the exclusion or peculiar and in advance of others, and a reso-injury of the sacred yet violated interests he lute determination to have his own way in spite of obstacles-the more determined because those obstacles existed-was actually by degress bringing those very "strange doctrines" into the fold of Christ, and preparing, without knowing it perhaps, for receiving the recompense for his conduct in a defection immensely more to be regretted on his own account than on account of the Church. He had travelled so far in his series of improve-will. ments that he was holding, if not teaching, all Romish doctrine, without probably being conscious of the fact; or if conscious of it, in a spirit of reservation and deceit which eminently fitted him to practise on the maxims that are said to make a large part of the policy of the society of Jesuits!

With the evident intent that I should discern yet more of the truth in this instructive case, the phases of my dream were altered, and I was permitted to discern the attitude in which the now notorious rector stood with reference to his brethren and the councils of the Church. I saw how by the concurrence of circumstances, rather than in consequence of any peculiar confidence in him, he had been selected a representative in a triennial council, and yet how, at the very diocesan convention at which this honor and trust were confided to him, he succeeded in so taking advantage of the shape affairs were assuming as to carry through a measure which the very brethren whom he was supposed to represent had instructed him to lay aside. They had marked out for him the line of action they deemed it his duty to pursue.

had been appointed to protect. His course, by common consent, was allowed to be more prejudicial to the just expectations of those who had unfortunately conferred upon him the power to do harm, than all other action in the body of which he was a member. He had his plans. He expressed his views. Even the well-known wishes of a majority of his constituents had no influence on his

The great legislative body of the Church adjourned, and the delegates returned to their usual spheres of action. Comparative quiet was regained every where save in the bosom of the man who had been so much trusted and so untrue. He could not be mistakenhe read it in the countenances, he read it in the words of his fellows-confidence was withdrawn from him. The suffrages of his associates could never more be his. He had reached the highest point to which he would be permitted to ascend. He must make up his mind to see the trusts which had been committed to him confided, as fast as opportunities offered, to hands less likely to betray. He deemed himself destined to receive cold marks of distant respect where he craved affection and faith in at once his ability and his honor. He could not bear a state of things so contrary to his will and so mortifying to his pride. And so he who never before in the course of his professional career had been entirely satisfied, now became most discontented and unhappy. He was suspicious even of his friends. Nothing pleased him; and so, in the constant nourishment of

A DREAM.

morbid feelings which daily increased "by that on which they fed," he withdrew from the circles in which he once delighted to be ranked, abstained from all intercourse with his brethren that necessity did not enforce, and-complained that he was set aside and neglected!

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because though he knew the right direction in which to look, he would not turn to it, he was given up to the indulgence of the will that was beginning to determine to hew out a way different from that which others would think of trying, and through obstacles which were the more inviting because they were so monstrously portentous? Might it not have been that because of a refined system of disobedience that covertly looked for self-grati

This was the state of mind in which he was prepared to have recourse to all those remarkable changes introduced in the Church over which he was appointed to be a minis-fication in everything attempted under the ter. In mental dreamings, looking probably name of duty, that "God gave him up to," more to earth than heaven for consolation, he not "a reprobate," but rebellious mind, and was casting about for something that would allowed him, for the admonition of others, to afford him the prospect or promise of relief. travel in ways of his own devising? Why Hence the ease with which he glided into the he seemed left to himself there was nothing advocacy of doctrines he before had often in my dream that clearly answered for an declared to be his utter detestation. Here explanation. I could judge only by the was a new opportunity for the exercise of consequences. And these at length became his imperious will. He could do, in defiance painfully apparent. He resigned the charge of the remonstrances and wishes of others, of the few people who still remained subject just what he pleased. He did it. It afford to his pastoral oversight. A few weeks ed almost the only relief he experienced from transpired-less than a month from the day the morbid sensations it had became his hab-on which he preached and administered the it to indulge. Just then occurred a trial, Holy Communion to his flock-and within a which was perhaps kindly sent to arrest him week of the time in which he freely confessin his wayward course, and direct his minded that "he did not doubt either his baptism to better things than earth contains, and loftier hopes than are offered by ambition. And had he used it aright it would have been the means of breaking the enthrallments in which he was being bound, and redirecting his soul to the simplicity of doctrine and practice which had sustained and adorned him in his better days. It was either to have this effect, or to sink him deeper in gloomy despondency, and make him more industrious than ever in his efforts to find some new terrestrial scheme or place in which to obtain the peace and rest that it seemed ever to be his lot to perceive retiring before him and eluding his earnest grasp. The gloom of his house and heart were deepened. All the rays of light appeared now to be excluded. He had ceased to look to his brethren for sympathy; he had treated with distrust the power of bis Son of man," said the angel, "take Church to administer consolation. Weeks warning from that which I have been pertranspired, and with him it was still the same.mitted to disclose to thee. Note the rocks Still was he seeking rest and finding none. on which thy erring brother has been wreckHis constant inquiry was "O where can rest be found?" And might it not have been that

or his orders," he had joined the Church of Rome! In her bosom, under the many different aspects which she conveniently presents, and the mazes which she has most industriously and cunningly contrived, he seeks to allay the morbid feelings which oppress and nearly break his heart,-to find a recompense for the disappointment of his ambition, and travel in perhaps the quiet of a cloistered cell, through the abode and instrumentality of saints, to heaven! Alas for his experimenting and self-willed mind! Who shall depict the pains and sorrows he must endure when he ascertains that disappointment is still his doom, and the saddest mistake in all his theologically chequered life was that which for only the present can be called his last!

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ed. Cultivate the opposite of the qualities and dispositions which have made such fear

Listen to thy Divine Master as in her hallow-dream a reality as painful as it is instructive? Is there not a case in which all its incidents have occurred?" At all events, it is to me as salutary an admonition as if it were a picture drawn from life; and I am under the most sacred of obligations to give heed to the

ed courts he cries, Follow me.' the Lord with all thine heart; on thine own understanding. ways acknowledge him, and he thy paths.'"

Trust in and lean not In all thy shall direct

I awoke. The events and representations lessons it inculcates.