the Bible that He wills all men to come to the knowledge of the truth and live. Suppose we actually hold those words to be divine; suppose, we think further-it is not too great a supposition for Churchmen of the English Church or any other-that we are baptized into the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and that the faith in that Name is the faith delivered to the Saints which we are to cherish, and for which we ought to die; must we not say-can we help saying that our faith is in divine persons, not in our generalizations; faith in a Being whose thoughts we cannot measure or compass, but in whom we live, and move, and are; faith in Him who has promised to guide us into all truth; faith in Him of whom we may know a little here, whom by slow degrees, in ages out of ages, we may learn to know. If there is such a Name, if we are sealed with it, can our apprehensions of it depend upon the judgments which any have formed in any day about texts of Scripture, or about the human authority which pronounces on texts of Scripture, or about the documents which contain texts of Scripture? All questions on this subject may be interesting and important in a very high degree; but if the Scripture sets

forth a Revelation, and if the Revelation has issued in this wonderful discovery, must we not suppose that GOD, as the Bible says, has founded His Church, and that the poor of His people may trust in it? Can we desire anything for that Church but the fullest, freest search into principles and laws? For God must preside over that search; it must lead to the exposure of our ignorance; it must issue in the manifestation of that Love, the height, and length, and depth, and breadth of which St. Paul desired for us all that we might know, even while he said that it passed knowledge.

Affectionately yours,

F. D. MAURice.

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LETTER VII.

THE FACTS OF BISHOP COLENSO.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

You say in one clause of your letter: "Whatever dreams, and notions, and schemes may have occupied the minds of men and wo

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men, the reality of physical, moral, and politi"cal facts has asserted itself. Laymen, who have "to work in the busy world or in scientific in

vestigation, are influenced accordingly." There cannot be a better introduction to the remarks which I have to make respecting the Bishop of Natal. Of him you observe that, avoiding all metaphysical questions, "he appeals to what he "calls the test of facts.'

Assuredly that is his claim. The impression which he has produced in England is derived from this cause. He has excited the fears of those Englishmen who wish to believe the Bible

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true, because he is supposed to have disputed its message, not on metaphysical grounds, but as at variance with facts. He has excited the hopes. of those who wish to believe the Bible false for the same reason. His opponents try to prove that he is mistaken in his statements, that he is feeble in his scholarship, in order to dislodge him from this position. By no other test than that which he has himself chosen, can he—so all confess— be fairly tried. I grant you also that Laymen are the persons to apply this test. We have various prejudices. We shall be apt to mix religious or metaphysical considerations with the pure naked facts. Let the Laity, those men who are busy with the affairs of the world-those of them, if you like, who are engaged in scientific investigations-be the jurors. There should be a fair mixture of the two classes. Let the scientific men be there, only not let them exclude the busy men.

For, as you observe so truly, there are certain moral and political facts which are asserting themselves, as well as physical facts. Neither must be overlooked. The physical facts are worthy of all consideration; but if those who are specially interested in these boast that they

are the only facts-if everything which belongs to the human region, which has to do with the acts and sufferings of men, is treated as fantastical and not real—we must, not as clergymen at all, but as plain Englishmen, in the interest of the Laity, and their common business, speak up stoutly, and declare, This shall not be. Numbers

are good. Weights and measures are good. All 'honour to them. But man must have his honour. 'His transactions may not be capable of being brought under the rules of arithmetic or geo'metry, but they are bona fide transactions notwithstanding. The world in which we dwell cannot dispense with them.'

Now I must repeat to you remarks which I have made elsewhere, and which are far from being to our credit as clergymen; that the Bible is not in any sense our book; that we did our best to keep it from the Laity; that we fed them as long as they would suffer us with legends, pictures, and mere dogmas; that after awhile they would not bear this; that they said they would have the Bible, and have it in their own native tongue; that they claimed it especially, emphatically, as a history-in contrast to the legends, or the mere school opinions which