is reproached by the Chronicler, because "he saught not to the Lord, but to the physicians;" and in the Epistle of St. James, distinct orders are laid down respecting the sick, " Is any sick among you? let him call for the Elders of the Church and they shall pray over him, annointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up." And in the xvith chapter of Mark, verses 17 and 18, we read "These signs shall follow them that believe; in My name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues (one of Mrs. Girling's accomplishments) they shall take up serpents; if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." (Mrs. Girling claims this power and denies that it is mesmeric.)

Now in reference to the passage read from St. Mark, of course we all know that it forms part of a chapter, the last eleven verses of which are an interpolation, and of very doubtful authority. But as many of the clergy know this as well as we do, why do they not proclaim it loudly and frequently from their pulpits and thus do a little at least towards guarding their people from delusions? It is perhaps because in the same interpolated and doubtful passage there occur the celebrated words on which the blighting clauses of the Athanasian Creed are founded, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." At all events, until Bishops and Clergy bring the fact of the doubtfulness of the whole passage into prominent notice up and down the land, they are tacitly encouraging their flocks to embrace the very delusions which now they are so forward to deride.

Mrs. Girling moreover actually believes that the promise made by Jesus in the Gospels respecting his return to earth is true; and she frames her life accordingly. Now although it has not been given to our Bishops and Clergy generally, nor even to many orthodox dissenters, to share the sanguine hopes of Dr. Cumming and Mrs. Girling; yet one and all talk of the second advent as if they believed in it, and especially during the season of Advent they press upon their flocks-not the abundity or fallacy of the prediction as given in the Gospels, but-its truth and importance.

Mrs. Girling believes her Saviour's words "He that believeth in me shall never die." Why is she to be laughed at for accepting these words literally, when millions of Christians

accept literally those other words of his, "Take eat, this is my body;" and, "This is my blood, Drink ye all of it;" and when millions more accept literally the words "I and my Father are one." Why, I ask, should this person be derided for either believing or accepting in a literal sense any one passage in that Book which those who laugh at her profess to regard in precisely the same light?

Celibacy, again, is one of Mrs. Girling's principles. Has it not been also that of thousands of men and women in the Church of Rome? Is her devotion to her Lord anything very different from that of the nuns of Paray-le-Monial, and the devotees of the "Sacred Heart?" Is not celibacy moreover distinctly encouraged, if not enjoined, in the New Testament? Does not Christ promise his best reward to those who give up their wives "for the kingdom of heaven's sake?" Did he not inculcate celibacy by his example, and by more or less open depreciation of family ties? The New Testament says he did. St. Paul certainly contrasts the honourable estate of marriage with the debasement of fornication and adultery; but the whole weight of his precepts and advice is thrown into the scale of celibacy altogether; urging that married folks are likely to live to please each other, whereas single folks would try only to please the Lord; and thus teaching that mutual regard was, if not opposed to, yet something quite outside, the duty owing to God.

And the Christians blame Mrs. Girling and her disciples for following the example laid down in the Acts of the Apostles by the conduct of the Early Church of Jerusalem. The apostles and first converts did exactly according to what we are told the precepts and example of Jesus had enjoined. They sold all that they had and shared everything in common with the community; and spent much of their time in prayer. The Communism of that time has been defended on the ground of its consistency with the belief in the speedy return of Jesus to occupy the throne of David. Precisely the ground, you see, on which these poor people at Lymington, justify their unfortunate experiment at Communism. The more we study their ways and their asserted principles, the greater is our admiration for the fidelity with which they endeavour to realize what they believe; to act up in every particular to the precepts and examples they have accepted as divine.

Another important effort on their part to realize the

doctrines they learn from the New Testament is their belief in the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. In the Epistles of Paul we find such expressions as these, "Know ye not that your bodies (not souls) are the temples of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, which ye have of God." And these passages are interpreted according to the light shed upon them by the Acts of the Apostles, wherein it is stated that the giving of the Holy Ghost was followed by miraculous manifestations. Almost in every point, if we blame these people, we must blame the book from which their every peculiarity has been drawn.

The only feature of their rites which I cannot find authority for in the New Testament is the dancing or shaking of the body during periods of religious fervour. I do not know if they go to the examples of Old Testament history for this practice, but a verse or two in the Psalms speak of "praising God in the dance." It is possible they may be influenced by the story of David dancing before the ark-an act not only not sanctioned by any precept in the Jewish law, but actually traceable to the more than questionable ceremonies of the idolatry of Canaan. But it is most probable that the dancing or shaking is simply Nature's own relief under the influence of powerful religious excitement. It is common enough to hear some persons of exuberant emotion say "I feel as if I could leap;" or "I feel as if I should like to scream"-perfectly natural sensations caused by the over-stimulus of the nervous system when it closely borders on temporary insanity. So, among the community at Lymington, the powerful physical exertion which accompanies their devotions is very probably a necessary and healthful relief from the over-straining of the nerves.

With this exception, however, it is easy to see that all that they have distinguished themselves by, all that has brought upon them the ridicule of their fellow-Christians may be traced to the direct authority and indirect influence of the New Testament; a book which Christians regard as Divinely infallible and to defend the verbal accuracy of which they will fight and persecute any one who calls it into question. The language of their behaviour is this: "You may act as if it were not all true, nor all binding upon you. But you must not say so. Nay, the more you play fast and loose with its precepts, and dress or redress or undress its examples,

the more noise you must make in declaiming against any one who has the audacity to say they are faulty or not adapted to modern times. You may almost do as you please, so long as you are loud and profuse in your professions of allegiance to the Book. You may not laugh at one word of its teaching, but may deride to your heart's content those who are so silly as to try to live up to it.

"You may affirm your belief in every sentence, but woe betide you if you try to obey its injunctions. You might as well try to walk upon the water, yes, and sink, as did Peter for his temerity."

What, we may ask, are the legitimate inferences which can be drawn from this remarkable episode?

In the first place it is clear that if the "Bible-Christians" are in error, (and common-sense tells us so, plainly,) their error arose from their entirely false estimate of the New Testament and of the persons therein depicted. They began by regarding the book as infallible, and the central figure of its narratives as a Divine example to be implicitly followed, as a Divine legislator to be implicitly obeyed. They next attached an undue importance to the precepts and examples of the apostles, and tried to follow them as they "had followed Christ "the very words St. Paul uses in one of his epistles. And the very same error is shared theoretically by the greater part of the Christian world; although common-sense has triumphed over foolish belief so far as to render the error less disturbing. It is only when we see the erroneous belief carried out into practice that we detect its absurdity and perceive it to be a glaring anachronism. But the mischief which it works in the Christian world is still rampant. Indeed it is worse in its way than the delusion of Peculiar people, because Christians are wont to take up and let fall the different teachings and maxims of the New Testament as they suit, or do not suit, their selfish interests, rather than as the teachings are intrinsically noble or base, wise or foolish.

While the orthodox world has abandoned as Utopian some of the best and highest precepts ever given to mankind, they have retained what was most puerile and least defensible in the New Testament Scripture.

Its supernaturalism, its demonology, its extravagant thought about the Deity of Christ, its sacramentalism, sacredotalism, and under-current of religious pride; its casual but definite encouragement of persecution; its exultation over

an endless hell for the damned-all these and such like blemishes the Christian world reveres and deems it impiety to deprave or even to question; while on the other hand, the doctrines of supreme endurance and self-denial, of nonresistance to personal attack, and the perfectly glorious list of virtues which it inculcates are often either openly derided, or suffered to fall into neglect. This charge, however, may be brought with almost equal fairness against believers in other creeds and even against some who have no creed at all, but profess only the Religion of Humanity. It is human nature to be unable at all times to live up to the perfect standard of our own ideal, or to be an honour to the religion we profess. But what is especially culpable, and what renders the present accusation deserved, is that the Pharisees of our time have been ridiculing the efforts of that little band. who, up to the light they had, have done their best to act out their belief.

It was not for Christians to throw stones at them. It was not for people who pray for rain and believe in the efficacy of Elijah's prayers, to laugh at Mrs. Girling for trusting unfeignedly in the Divine succour. It was not for people who believe in the devil to make fun at her delusion about spirits or to mock at her conflicts with the powers of darkness. Nor was it becoming in people who say every Sunday “ I believe that Christ will come again to judge the quick and the dead," to make sport of those who tried their best to live in readiness for that awful coming.

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For my part, I must say, with earnest hope that many will agree with me, that the spectacle of absolute trust in the Divine care, under circumstances bad enough to crush the stoutest heart, is one which deserves our unfeigned respect. Whether their faith be founded on an erroneous conception of God's providence or not, it is illustrious and grand; lifting those who by nature and training were utterly common-place into a level of absolute heroism, which all true men must admire.

Let us be quite sure that God's answer to their prayers and reward for their trust-come in what form they maywill lead them, here or hereafter, to confess that God had been infinitely true to their hopes and that He had done for them abundantly above all that they could ask or think. "Blessed are all they that trust in Him."

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