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are divided into opposite, if not hostile, camps, not by any difference of doctrine relating to salvation and eternal life, but by a difference in the form of ecclesiastical government! Forms are often stronger than principles in creating and perpetuating divisions, because forms are matters of sense and habit, which do not admit of change so easily as opinions, which belong to the mind. It is the happy sign of a desire to return to the true spirit of Christianity, from which the Church has so far departed, that in almost every religious communion, except the Church of Rome, there is a growing spirit of toleration, less importance being attached to the forms and more to the substance of religion, and a willingness and even an effort to unite on the common ground of Christian principle. This is not, indeed, simply a revival of the spirit of primitive Christianity. It is the result of a new outpouring of the Spirit, a second Pentecost, the effect of a Second Coming of the Son of Man, and which is felt by many though its origin is known to few. This is the spirit that is now spreading its benign influences among the Churches, and inspiring them with the spirit of charity and of union. The author of the History of the Catholic Church has received a large measure of this spirit, and we have no doubt his work will have the happy effect of helping to bring others under its influence. But the historical value of his work is not merely in its spirit but in its truth. He has shown that the Primitive Church was neither episcopalian nor presbyterian in the precise form in which they exist at the present time.

The work before us is a biographical history of the early Church. Among the Lives are those of Clement, bishop of Rome, Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, and Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna. Their history is intended, not so much to show the constitution and government of the Church in successive periods, as in different places.

"Clement of Rome may be looked upon as a chief link connecting the apostolic with the isapostolic and subapostolic Church. He had intimate relations with all the three. The disciple and friend and companion of St. Peter and St. Paul, and employed and trusted by them in ecclesiastical matters, we can well believe that he would carry the spirit at least of their system into the guidance of the Church after their departure." "Ignatius, as all ancient history testifies, was a pupil and disciple of St. John. He is said to have been nominated by the apostles to the presidency of the Church of Antioch about the year 65, and to have continued in that office for the space of forty years." His character seems to have been a very faithful reflexion of that of the beloved Apostle, whose spirit and wisdom he had largely

received. "Polycarp it was who, when asked by the proconsul to curse Christ, gave that answer, so marvellous in its beauty, which will make the hearts of all Christians in all generations to thrill with admiration until the end of time,-Fourscore and six years have I been His servant, and never hath He done me any wroug: how then can I blaspheme my King, who hath saved me?"

It is reasonable to expect that the constitution and state of the Church at that early period, and under the direction and influence of such men as these, would not greatly differ from what they were during the time of the apostles themselves. Yet we must not suppose that there was in those early times one distinct organization called the Catholic Church, or that there was any formal system of doctrine and discipline. "It is very interesting to notice how St. Clement, in describing the foundation of the Christian Church, bases everything, first, upon the facts of the Incarnation, the Death, and the Resurrection of Christ, then of His sending His apostles,-they in their turn sending bishops and deacons to teach and preach those facts." Although introduced for another purpose, this statement gives what we may regard as a general view of the condition of things in the early Church. Jesus as the Saviour of the world, and the means of proclaiming and bringing home to the minds and hearts of men this great truth, were the first elements of the Church's doctrine and ecclesiasticism. Simple indeed, but capable of expansion. Had these simple elements acquired their right and orderly development all would have been well; the truth would have gone on conquering and to conquer, and the Church would have grown in harmony and unity as it increased in numbers. We need not say how little this has been the case. Yet for a time the truth prevailed and the Church prospered both internally and externally. The pastors were earnest and singleminded, and the flocks were teachable and easily governed, and desired nothing more than to be led to the green pastures and beside the still waters. What, in those times, were the condition of the pastors and the flock, and the relation that existed between them? What was that out of which have grown an Episcopal hierarchy, apostolic succession, and an infallible head of the Church?

It was the practice of the apostles, when by their preaching they had drawn a number of converts around them, and formed what we would call a congregation, to leave them in charge of some qualified and duly-appointed pastor or pastors. In this way "St. Peter ordained at Rome a number of presbyter-bishops, as St. Paul did at Ephesus, indeed wherever he planted the Gospel. These bishops be

But nearly every came the original presbyterial college of Rome. college of presbyters had a chairman or president, either nominated by the apostolic founder of the Church, or else elected by the presbyters themselves." The constitution of the Church of Alexandria was similar to that of the Church of Rome. "The only difference was that the presidents of Rome grew much more rapidly than those of Alexandria into diocesan bishops. The next stage of growth was the development of the bishops of the great cities into primates or metropolitans; and of these metropolitans, three-the primates of Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch-ascended to the majestic height of the patriarchial throne. The bishops of Jerusalem were only patriarchs by courtesy, and the erection of Constantinople into a patriarchate was a mere political intrigue. At least it was certainly not the result of spontaneous growth; nor was it brought about by the unbiassed action of the Catholic Church herself."

(To be continued.)

LOVE'S FETTERS.1

THOUGH Secret love consumes my virgin heart,
Not bold enough am I that love to tell;
One word from thee would bid all shame depart,
And in that heart make joy for ever dwell.

First all in sport that passion did awake,

And, wrought by courtesy, its fetters grew
Around our hearts, and, now too strong to break,
Unites in one fond wish two lovers true.

Oh! blest the hour that brings me to thy sight,
And sad the time that bids me say, Farewell;
Would that, to meet and part no more, we might
Together in eternal union dwell.

SCRIPTURE BOTANY.

(LEO GRINDON.)

No. X.-THE BROAD-LEAVED TREES.-(Continued.)

ANOTHER charming legend of antiquity in which poplars make their appearance is that of Arethusa. Virgil selects the same tree in his description of the nightingale mourning the loss of her young; and, coming to the literature of our own country, Shakspere employs the companion tree in one of his richest bursts of metaphor:—

1 This is a bit of Japanese poetry, for the English version of which we are indebted to F. Takeya, Esq., a Japanese student now in this country.

Met. v. 590. Concerning this lust, see Keightley's Mythology, p. 132.

"In such a night,

Stood Dido with a willow in her hand,

Upon the wild sea-banks, and waved her love
To come again to Carthage."

Such being the natural associations of the trees in question, it is consistent that the captive Israelites should be represented as hanging their harps upon the willows. "By the waters of Babylon there we sat down; yea, we wept when we remembered Zion: we hanged our harps upon the orebim in the midst thereof." Whatever special application this word may have had with the Hebrews, it certainly did not denote the tree ordinarily thought to have been used for the purpose indicated, viz. the common and well-known "weeping willow." For although Linnæus, believing it to be the genuine plant, gave it the name of Salix Babylonica, Professor Karl Koch has proved beyond dispute that it is a native, not of Mesopotamia, but of China, and to get rid of the misleading epithet, re-names it Salix pendula. Of course it may grow now in south-western Asia, as an introduced plant, just as it grows on the borders of Virginia Water; and that it thrives on the banks of the Jordan and near Damascus is distinctly asserted. But this is a very different thing from being indigenous to the margin of the Euphrates. Most probably, it would seem, the captives' tree was the Populus Euphratica. The latter is met with very generally in central Asia, and reaches westwards as far as the Jordan, and would sufficiently well harmonize with the sorrows of the exiles. It has remarkably narrow leaves, quite unlike those of poplars in general, and would seem to be the tree alluded to by Rauwolf,-that meritorious old traveller by whom the plants mentioned in Scripture were first queried with scientific care. He was a pupil of the celebrated Rondelet, and sailing from Marseilles for the Levant sometime in 1573, pursued a laborious and perilous journey through Syria, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, and on his return to Europe published an account of it in German, his native language. Rauwolf's magnificent collection of dried plants, once the property of Queen Christina, and still preserved in the University of Leyden, supplied the materials from which Gronovius compiled his Flora Orientalis. He died towards the close of the century, and about a hundred years afterwards his book was translated into English. Hasselquist, we may here remark, was another whose name should be dear to every student of Scripture Botany. In 1747, while at the University of Upsala, he was so excited by a remark made by his preceptor, Linnæus, on the meagreness of the knowledge then possessed as to the Holy Land Flora, that within little more than a year he was on his way to Palestine; and more charming than any work of fiction is the account he gives of his tour. Poor fellow, like many another martyr to noble enterprise, he did not live to return to his native land. Falling ill at Smyrna, he wasted away daily, "like a lamp whose oil is spent," and died, February 9, 1752, aged only 31. Far less disposed to go learnedly and ingeniously astray than his great countryman Celsius, author of the renowned Hierobotanicon, Hasselquist, though

not free from errors, unquestionably cleared up many difficulties in regard to the plants of Scripture, and is to be regarded as one of those by whom the pathway through the forest was indicated for ourselves.1 If the memory of crusaders and great captains be preserved so diligently, and statues be raised in their honour, how much more deserving are those who, spite of all obstacles and dangers, have set off alone to search for illustrations of the true and lovely.

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That in Palestine, in the low damp grounds that border the streams, there are plenty of willows is quite true. The Salix octandra is said to grow there; also the Salix Egyptiaca, and another, resembling our common English osier, Salix viminalis.. "In some of the wadys of the Dead Sea," says Mr. Tristram, we found a very fine species of willow, flourishing abundantly." "These wadys," he adds, " are the only places in Palestine where we found the willow the predominant tree, and where it continuously lined the bank of any stream." Doubtless one of these wadys was "the brook of the willows" in Isaiah xv. 7, a locality he associates with uttermost grief. Probably, according to Dean Stanley, it was the Wady Ebni-Hammid, on the south-east side of the Dead Sea, so picturesquely referred to by Keble in "The Christian Year" as the "willow-shaded stream." Rauwolf is singularly exact as to the botany. Speaking of the Salix Egyptiaca, which is probably the tsaphtsaphah of Ezekiel xvii. 5 (the only verse in which the word occurs), he observes,-"These trees are of various sizes: the stems, branches, and twigs are long, thin, soft, and of a full yellow colour, and bear some resemblance to those of the birch; the leaves are like those of the common willow. On the boughs grow here and there shoots a span long, and these put forth in spring tender downy blossoms like those of the poplar.'

While supplying the poets with imagery, these willows were no doubt put to practical use. Osier-like twigs, such as those adverted to, must assuredly have been employed by the Hebrews for purposes similar to those which render them valuable to-day. Wicker-work was certainly known to the ancient Egyptians; Herodotus makes mention of Babylonian boats that were constructed of willow-stems; and coracles manufactured of the same are represented in the Nineveh sculptures. Homer often refers to willows and osiers under their ancient Greek name of iréa,-whatever Homer has to say on rustic and rural matters no doubt is in large measure abreast of what was true of the Hebrew country method of life; and as baskets are things which no civilized nation can dispense with, no doubt, whenever required in the days of the patriarchs, the plant resorted to, as now, was the round and flexible willow. It was in a calathus wrought of osiers that Persephone was collecting her sweet Sicilian wild-flowers when carried away;- -a calathus, it would seem, of that pretty shallow and hemispherical kind which has never gone out of fashion, in which the

1 Vide Iter Palæstinum, Stockholm, 1757, Swedish and Latin; or the indifferent English translation, published in 1766, Voyages and Travels in the Levant, 1749-1752.

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