caper plant is given in Mrs. Blackwell's Herbarium, v. 417, and another, fair, but much less expressive, in the Botanical Magazine, Pl. 291. The original form of the name is found in the Arabic kabir. Fuller, it may be added, in the work above cited, recognizes the Mosaic hyssop as a labiate, and as being certainly quite different from the êzôb which was 66 Solomon's study." To some the inquiry may seem trivial. Bishop Horsley reminds us that every sentence in the Bible is from God, and that every man has a personal interest in the right meaning of it.

THE CHURCH THE CENTRE OF ALL INSTITUTIONS. MORE than once in the history of the world the Church, meaning an institution, has gathered to itself all the characteristics of the age, and has represented the whole life of the people. In the palmy days of Judaism the Church was not merely an institution among many, but it was the centre of all life. It gathered to itself the learning, the art, the wealth, the hopes, the armies, and the industries of the whole nation. It did not compete with the schools of the time for honours and place, but the schools were an essential part of the Church; it did not contend with the theatre or concert hall, because the histrionic art and music were both associated in their highest known forms with public worship. Indeed, the Church was truly and fully the exponent of Jewish character.

In a similar manner, at the time that the Christian Church stood in the majesty of its power,-an unholy power if you like, but still a power not necessarily so,-it too represented the whole of human life. The Church was not merely an institution, but it was human society in the aggregate. With all its faults it was the patron of whatever was great and powerful in the world, and not a pauper subsisting on charity. Art, learning, ay, even science, were associated with the Church. It was rooted in and grew out of the life of the people; and the past religious age lives among us to-day in the finest architecture, the finest painting, the finest sculpture, and the rudiments of whatever the world esteems most highly and cherishes with the greatest care. We are told that every Church has commenced as in the morning, has risen to the splendours of midday, and slowly descended the western slopes of evening, setting at last in utter darkness. At the present

time the Church is in the early morning of its existence. As an institution it is an outcast. It is not central in anything. It is in the wilderness. Science disowns it; because the Egyptians cannot use it, they will not serve it. At present it is early morning, and men are only just waking to the fact that the Church is not a conpetitive institution, but the first essential of happy existence; that it is not a pauper living on charity, but a patron; and not an institution among others, but that in truth it either does or ought to represent the whole of human life. Some people, even in the New Church, do not hesitate to say that the Church is a competitive institution, that at present its status is only secondary, or at most that with the lecture-room, the concert hall, the theatre, and the fine art gallery its position is one of simple equality. Nor can it be denied that what with science, business, music, literature, and amusements, people's time, interest, talents, money, and enthusiasm are considerably exhausted, and that at present the Church fares only upon the remnants of life's feast. The Church has so many formidable rivals that men not unfrequently regard it as an institution, to be compared with and supported like a subscription concert or philosophical society. No doubt time and experience, growth and development, will rectify all these errors. But in the meantime the Church in our own hearts suffers, and character is degraded, and the standard of manhood is lower than it ought to be.

People, generally speaking, are fairly happy; they enjoy good health, are cheerful and prosperous, they have all necessaries for the body, and as a rule they are comfortable and happy. But people are not happy as the members of a religious society. And it is because the Church is lower in their esteem, and holds a less exalted place in their affections than the institutions of social and civil life. It is not regarded as an essential, but as a kind of parasite; not as a patron, but as a receiver of charity. No doubt this state of affairs is a necessary phase of growth; still it cannot be regarded as a happy one. The New Church is to be the crown and glory of all Churches. And from its broad sympathies, its natural affection for truth wherever found, its harmony with science, its inborn love of art and the beautiful, its study of nature and its fostering care over all that touches man for good, we may see that its tendency is not to isolate itself from the world, but to fuse all the elements of life in its great love, and again stand paramount in society.

Probably most people regret that the Church does not engage the

warmest affections of men, and that it should stand isolated from the world. But really we cannot be surprised that it is so. While the Church is represented chiefly by the Sunday services, there is not any wonder that men regard the world and its varied enjoyments, services, and possessions as at anyrate its equal, if not its superior. In the shape of architecture (cathedrals excepted), art, genius, music, comfort, beauty, and attractive appointments, the Church is simply not to be mentioned in comparison with the world. Men have to go to the world for everything but sermons. The Church is great at talk, and the world is great at deeds, and men prefer deeds. The world has everything for every day in the week; the Church has literally nothing for six days out of the seven. But better days are in store. Terrible means have to be employed by the Lord at times in order to purify His Church. Enemies are raised up, or rise up in order to chastise, correct, reprove, and reform. For a time the Church suffers, but in due season she rises out of her humiliation purified, strengthened, and regenerated. For several centuries the Church has been humiliated. The glory of the Romish Church began to fade through the licentiousness of its own members; and to hasten the vastation Providence raised up Puritanism. In the reign of Edward VI. a reaction towards primitive simplicity-as distinguished from the elaborate ritual, the ceremony, pomp, and aesthetic worship of Rome-set in. Men saw the evils of spectacular worship, and in order to avoid them they rushed to the opposite extreme; they seceded from the Church, and by professing extraordinary purity in worship and conduct, they received the name of Puritans.

The remedy offered by Puritanism for the purification of the Church was quite as bad as the disease it professed to cure. Swedenborg tells us that the difference between a true and a false Church is not in the ritual, but in the doctrines relating to the ritual. The Puritans, either unmindful or not aware of this important truth, encouraged a violent and insane hatred towards everything relating to art and the beautiful, and towards ritual and ceremony of every kind. Dreading the perversion and abuses of innocent and useful things,-if they happened to be æsthetic in character,-it did its best to exterminate every trace of their existence. To be quite sure of destroying the tares, it pulled up wheat and tares together. Indeed, Puritanism acted like the man in the fable. Having some cattle infested with vermin, the owner-a Hindu-drove them down to the Ganges and drowned them. "There," said he, "I wished to destroy those pests, and I have done it

too!"

Praiseworthy zeal truly; still, a zeal untempered by wisdom. And thus it was with Puritanism. Cognizant of the great evils concealed beneath the exquisite drapery and symbolism of a decaying Church, Puritanism saw no remedy for them save in the destruction of the innocent things to which they clung, and in order to destroy the ones it paid no heed to the others. Nothing was spared; cathedrals were turned into stables, the works of genius were mutilated as the snares of the Devil, music was ejected from the Church as an ungodly thing, and where art could not be utterly effaced, it was as far as possible concealed from view by the Puritan antidote to evil-whitewash! At the expense of the external Church, Puritanism did its best to wipe out evil. Its panacea were the conventicle and whitewash. Its doctrines were no truer than those of the Established Church; and while it offered nothing better in the form of doctrine, it branded a host of innocent helps to devotion with profaneness. It made music, art, genius, ceremony, ritual, recreation, dancing, the drama, and æsthetics in general the sole property of the world, the flesh, and the Devil. And to this day the Church has reclaimed literally nothing. Genius is wholly in the pay of the world; art, music, and the drama flourish in their best forms without the Church h; dancing must be sought without her pale (except in rare instances), and science points at her the finger of scorn, or walks moodily outside her narrow walls. With the exception of sermons, and the remnants of Romish splendour in cathedrals, the world provides man with the best of everything. The Church has not even a library; the world has to provide man with that. If men wish to hear the finest religious music they do not go to the Church for it, but to a public hall. Religious music in its perfection is provided on trade principles, and as a means of making money. It is the same with sculpture, painting, the drama, and whatever relates either to culture or amusement. The world is man's host, and with the politeness of an honoured guest, man pays his chief respect to the world. And no wonder.

It is however a growing conviction that this state of affairs is wrong, and that it must not continue. Men are beginning to feel that the Church ought to represent the whole life of man. Properly understood, the Church is not an institution, but it is every institution in the aggregate. It is in sympathy with everything that contains a blessing, and again she is advancing to her high and honoured place in the earth. Purified of superstition, the lust of power and dominion, priestcraft, and lay-craft, which is quite as unholy, and of false doctrine

Good

and secret evil, the Church is reclothing herself with the robes of majesty. A reaction from Puritanism has already set in. The whitewash and conventicle age is slowly drawing to a close. men everywhere are perceiving that at present the Church has to compete with the world, and that to succeed she must become man's host not merely in homilies and prayers, and not merely one day out of the seven, but in all the requirements of his nature, and for each day of the week.

As New Church people standing on the outposts of humanity, we ought to try and make the Church the centre of everything. The rich ought to bring into it their wealth, and those who are not rich ought to bring into it their talent, and give their labour. The Church ought to be, or at least ought to have in connection with it, a fine art gallery, a theatre, a lecture-room, a scientific institute, a library, and lack nothing as the host of mankind. As the hosts of a small party, men spend their money with the most lavish profusion in order to give them entertainment; their homes become museums, exhibitions, libraries, and fine art galleries; and when the Church holds the first place in human regard, men will "bring the glory and honour of the nations into it." The Church is humiliated, because the principles of religion are abased in the minds of men. Man was made to enjoy the perfect entertainment of every sense, and if the Church does not provide for his wants the world will, and the world will take the credit. Until the Church can say to men as the world says, "Come and look at our library; come and look at this exquisite bit of sculpture by Gibson or Powers; come and look at Noel Paton's Spirit of Religion,' or 'Mors Janua Vitæ ;' come and look at this sunny landscape by Millais and the 'Shadow of the Cross' by Holman Hunt, and come and listen to the new tenor in 'Elijah ' or the 'Messiah ;'"-until the Church is able to touch the heart, the sympathies, and the imagination, and to awaken the soul to reverence and goodness by the master hand of genius as the world can, it will never sustain the high position the Lord intended it should do among the children of men.

As a people seeing the Church thus abased, and knowing the causes, we ought to ask ourselves if we are not somewhat behind in our duty. "All religion has relation to life." But surely this does not mean getting money on Christian principles, and spending it upon, or hoarding it for, one's self. Is there nothing we may do towards making the Church more attractive on Sundays? Cannot we build more commodious places of worship, with as many comforts as we enjoy in our