ures in Heaven;" for know, "Ye must be born again."

No falsehood there: the sectarian fanes preach all the same home-truths.

When the belfries, chanting requiems

Over gaping sepulchres,

Knell afar the mourner's sadness,

This from far reverberates,

As it were a living spirit

Bringing back the mourner's solace,

Saying that the loved and loving

In these echoes answer us.

I spare Religion's altars.

Let no cur

Of satire move his tongue against the holds

Of Worship. Tools of Culture these, and wrenched

From priestly hands, they may be wisely used.

Reformer, dost thou aim thy sturdy blows

At

any work of Time, then is thy name
De-former. Nay, destroyer, thou shalt mar
Thy weapon, but never these rocks of truth.

God save the goodly temples of our land!
I love them less for what they were than are,
And verily for what they are to be—

Schools of Wisdom and nurseries of Love,

Where Conscience yet shall break the bread of Truth,

And Reason, too, the rod of Reverence.

Good spirits! guide my thought, restrain my pen, Nor let me write a word disparaging

The Hope of Christendom. The Church hath need

Never to change her aim, only to lose

Her errors.

Mind, and read Ecclesia

In its literal, most essential sense.

I battle not with synagogues and sects. Not one of them would I annihilate, Were I almighty. There's a good in each That is the need of all, and the same ill; For what divides is what they all should hate. They seem to me like orchards I have seen, O'errun with canker-worms. 'Tis not the trees,

Only the parasites should be destroyed.

I own their fruits are bitter so in Spring

Are green apples. Wait till the fruits are ripe. But thrifty trees may be improved by trimming;

So

may

the schools of Faith; and here's the task

We are coming to.

By the Church I mean

All ritual worshipers from first to last
Bearing the name of Christian, who adore
Jesus as the Christ God's atoning Lamb
And Man's sole Savior, and who seek reprieve

From damnation through his vicarious death.
Here is the heart of every Christian's hope.
Some other doctrines gather on this core,
But they are not essential to the saint-
As oft embody in a sinner's life.

Faith in the Cross is all the excellence

The wicked need, to make them orthodox.
And in a crowd of such idolaters,

Though some are virtuous, 't is all of chance
That any are. Of most it may be said,
They honor less the precepts of their Lord,
Than his bestowing grace. They cherish not
His life of love, but only seek its fruits.
They prize a heaven above their own desert,
And for bliss they have no will to earn.
Nay, worse; like the hungry, whom Jesus fed,
The Church has magnified his precious name
Much for its worldly sway, much for its golden gains.

pray

Here for Ecclesia understand Priestcraft,
Whose portraiture ensues: first, in the act
Of making court, with angel-faced pretence,
To the World's own Jesus; then touched with rage
For his rejected suit, snatching the scroll

Of human Hope- the Gospel-word of Life,
And in the mire of lust and bigotry

Stamping it out of sight; but last and best,

In his defeat, confounded that his work
Turns to fulfil this word of prophecy :

"Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again;
The eternal years of God are hers;
But error, wounded, writhes in pain,
And dies amid her worshipers."

2*

CHAPTER I.

REPUTATION OF THE CHURCH.

"Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you."- Luke VI. 26.

THERE is a common notion that proverbs are oracles of wisdom; and many gravely repeat, that “what everybody says must be true." Reputation generally supersedes character, so far as individuals belong to society; and so far as institutions affect persons, public opinion represents law. How a man grows into popularity! How much greater our statesmen in office than out! In 1844, everybody was asking, "Who is James K. Polk?" The next year all wished to hide their former ignorance.

how political grandeur perishes!

coveted, nevertheless. All men

Now the marvel is,

The frail thing is

would have others

think and speak well of them. Who will not listen,

when one's name is uttered, to know if it savor re