the future history of these separatists from the Armenian Church. We have said enough to show why such a Mission could not be successful. The "Declaration" which we have given above is painfully suggestive, as to the converts themselves. It seems to show, that it is a mere question of power which is at stake. Apparently, every vestige of reverence for the old landmarks has been obliterated from the minds of the converts. That Church which poured out its blood in martyrdom in the Decian persecution; that Church which stands adorned with the name of the saintly Gregory; that Church which has for so many ages preserved the Faith and has glowed with the warmth of true devotion, as her Offices clearly show; that Church, with its primitive Doctrine, Ministry and Worship, seems to have no hold upon the affections of this new band of seceders. Their Declaration would seem to imply, that the ele ment of modern German Rationalism has already taken possession of them, and that the Church, as "the pillar and ground of the Truth," is utterly discarded. They say, it is our "duty," and our "privilege" "to govern ourselves by an Apostolic and lawful organization, having the word of God as our guide, together with the testimony of our consciences." Having already separated themselves from the "Apostolical" organization, and taken as their guide the testimony, not of the pure primitive age of the Apostolic Church, but of their own "consciences," it is not difficult to conjecture where that "guide" will, at length, land them. Nor do we doubt, that the advice of the Missionaries, repeated again and again, was honestly given; "let him who cannot agree with our course, return wherever he came from." That is, better that these converts should go back again into the bosom, the communion and fellowship of the Armenian Church, with all its corruptions, than launch out into the deep, with no other compass and rudder than their own consciences to guide them. Alas! we fear the example of these Missionaries will be more powerful than their words of warning.

Meanwhile, and in conclusion, we cannot but urge, with all the earnestness in our power, upon our brethren of the English Church, especially upon the Venerable Society for the Propa

gation of the Gospel, that they will take this matter into their own hands. We know, better than they know, the deep, we are willing to say honest hostility of the American Board to primitive Order and Discipline, to the Creeds, the Episcopate, and the Liturgies, of the Apostolic Church. That battle has been fought here for fifty years, openly and publicly. As American Churchmen, we have gained the victory at home; but we are, as yet, too few, too feeble, and, sad to confess, too faithless, to follow the battle to the distant field in the East, where it is now carried. Our words will reach some who can move effectually. Let English Churchmen, whose power and activity in the work of Christ in these modern times we are grateful to witness, engage, with all their immense resources, in the Reformation of the Oriental Churches, on the same basis as that on which their own Branch of the Church was freed from modern usurpations and corruptions. The Genevan theory of Reform has borne its sad, bitter fruits at home, in its own. birth-place; let it not be left to bring forth still more disastrous results in a land and among a people where, of all places under the sun, it cannot but be most prolific of multiform evils.

ART. III. THE PROVINCIAL SYNOD OF THE PROVINCE OF CANADA.

THE assembling within the Cathedral of Montreal of five Bishops of the Province of Canada, and of the Clergy and Laity of five Dioceses, was a very grateful event to the Church in this Colonial dependency of the British Crown; and the solemnity was deepened, when the aged Bishop of Quebec said, in his truly evangelical Sermon,-" At the time when he who now addresses you first came into the world, there was but one (Colonial) Bishop of the Church of England, and that Bishop was the first; before him there was not one solitary example to be found, in the entire extent of the Colonial dependencies, throughout the empire. We now number upwards of Forty Colonial Bishops, and in Canada alone, with an approaching happy accession, we have five and six within a range of country, which, at one time, was traversed by the Episcopal Ministrations of one among us"-that one is the Bishop of Quebec himself. And again, "in that portion of America, which, while it belonged to us, we left unprovided for,-the number of Bishops exceeds forty." So much accomplished under great discouragements within the life of one man in Canada, and of two generations in America. Surely the hand of the Lord hath done this! And, as if the time of the Church's refreshing had fully come, here we find assembled, in Montreal, the Provincial Synod of Canada, where, but eight short years since, the struggle first began on behalf of Diocesan Synods.

Whatever doubts existed to check the onward movement, they have been dispelled, and the Right Rev. Bishops give their testimony in favor of the revival of the Church's inherent rights, confident that Divine Order will never miscarry, when undertaken under Divine help. The vitality, of which the Church of England gives such marked evidence, has at no time, or in no place, been more striking, than in the large and important Province of Canada; and to those who have watched the action of Synodal assemblies convened in the several

Dioceses, it must be matter of sincere wonder and congratulation, that so much should have been accomplished at such little

cost.

The Church in the States of America, when called to discharge her duty to the people, found that the great hindrances to be combatted and overcome, were poverty, and the national prejudices, which had, in consequence of Revolution, arisen between the late Colonists and the Mother Country. "The Church of England" was somehow so entirely associated with "The Government of England," that the popular voice condemned the one, in their condemnation of the other, and conceived a prejudice for one because of similar dislikes to the other. But if, in the first out-burst of popular feeling, Amer-ican Churchmen were made painfully aware of the difficulties through which they would necessarily have to pass, they,. nevertheless, exhibited a loyal devotion to principles, which. were sacred, and, as written by the Law of God on their hearts,. must be maintained and defended. The Episcopate secured according to Apostolic and primitive usage, and from direct,. unbroken Apostolic descent, through both branches of the Catholic Church of Christ in Britain, the inherent and Divine right of the Church revived, and, as separate from the State,. congregated in Synodal Assembly, and unfettered, save by the Canons and customs of the Primitive Church, and by accepting the formularies and Articles of England's Church, the Episcopal Church of America began the warfare for CHRIST,. which she, in common with the sister Churches of Christendom,. has to wage. There were no local governmental privileges to overcome. The State had no claims to urge especially on her ;: no conflicting interests necessitated that the strong arm of power should seize by violence the heritage of the Redeemer.. The contest was for Christ's heritage, for the very existence of His Church. The struggle has been a mighty one; but, depending on no earthly aid, and working out her system, according to the universal law, which a hallowed antiquity and the Word of God dictate, she now is rising, like a giant refreshed, and, with a mighty hand and stretched out arm, is gathering in God's people from all parts of the nation. If, 37*

VOL. XIV.-NO. III.

then, the Revolution took from England a goodly portion of her dominion, we may, nevertheless, now plainly discern, that God has enabled His people to build up Zion a fair habitation, that He may present her to the nations, as a bride for the Lord. The free and unrestrained development of the Church in America, governed by herself, doing her Master's work in the State, and not under the State, walking in dutiful allegiance to the powers that be, recognizing them "as rulers sent from God"has, day by day, won back the confidence of many, and has, certainly, not forfeited the respect due from all. Above all, by her course of action, by her patient continuance in welldoing, she has been teaching the Mother from which she sprang, "that it is better to trust in the Lord than to put any confidence in Princes."-We claim, then, for the Church in the States, the meritorious privilege of having proved to the world, that the promise of Christ is sure, and that His word is certain, for His kingdom must be established.

The growth of unbelief and of Dissent in Britain has for sometime inconveniently encroached upon the ancient forms and customs of the Civil Government, and a combination of factions, hostile to the interests of the national Religion, has served but to cripple that harmonious action, which, to be useful, should ever subsist between the State and any established form of Worship. According to the theory of the Government of England, the House of Commons is the Lay element of an Ecclesiastical Parliament, the proper Clerical element of which sits separately in two Houses. But when we come to examine closely the Constitution of this theoretical Assembly, we soon detect that the power of the State has, ab initio, most sadly marred the rightful constitution of the Church. Henry VIII,—and it has been the same with his successors,―aimed at a severance from the Roman yoke, not for the benefit of the Church of Christ, but to subserve purposes of State, and so soon as this purpose has been accomplished, the thraldom of the Church has merely been exchanged from one tyranny to another. Yet, free from what was a grievous dominion, the Church of England, through the acts, not of one single Convocation belonging to one single Province