According to this decision, any clergyman in his writings or in his sermons may legally deny the divine inspiration of any part of the Scripture that he pleases, and to any extent. No wonder that the Archbishops of York and Canterbury should refuse their assent to such a decision; but in this case they are as much bound to submit to it as the humblest curate. For the State has determined that the Church has misunderstood its own Articles and formularies, and attempted to impose upon them a meaning which the framers of them never contemplated. Therefore when a clergyman affirms, as some do, that the decision of the Privy Council is true in law but not in theology, it should be remembered that the Privy Council disclaim any attempt to decide what the theology of the Church of England ought to be; they only state what it actually is, and upon this statement base their legal decision; so that, in this respect, both law and theology coincide;there is no escape. The bearing of this decision upon the trial and deposition of Bishop Colenso is of supreme importance, as it will go far to invalidate the charges made against him at his trial; for when Dr. Colenso had said in his writings that Scripture is not all of it the Word of God, but only contains the Word of God, it was replied on the part of the prosecution, that the expression contain, as used in the Articles, was equivalent to contents, and therefore that when the church implies that the Canon contains the Word of God, she means that the contents of the Canon are the Word of God. It was also affirmed that the Canonical books signified such books as were considered by the church to possess divine inspiration; hence, that no clergyman was at liberty to doubt the inspiration of any part of them. The decision of the Privy Council will make sad havoc among these and similar arguments; and should an appeal ever be made to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the judgment of the Privy Council will very seriously interfere with the decision he might otherwise have given.* As members of the New Church, we most cordially welcome any increase of liberty to the clergy of the Church of England; and yet our fear is that it will be used by some rather to destroy than to build up. This is evident from the recent Charge of the Bishop of St. Davids, which, no doubt, had a considerable influence upon the Privy Council; and in which the authority of the Scriptures, as divinely inspired, is reduced to the smallest possible amount. Dr. Colenso is fully entitled to the benefit of this fact, of which he has not failed to avail himself. The Bishop of St. Davids has, however, seasonably exposed the folly of * It is well known that Dr. Colenso denies the legality of the whole proceedings. the argument, that as the church existed before the Bible, so she may exist after it, i.e., in both cases without it. The divine inspiration of the Canon is now therefore become an open question. The long anticipated battle has begun. In a sermon recently preached before the University of Oxford, by the Rev. D. M. Chase, Principal of St. Mary's Hall, it is asked—“Is all Holy Scripture equally (that is to say, in the same sense) inspired?" and the reply, in opposition to Mr. Burgon, is that it is not. It is a great pity that none of these authors tell us what inspiration is; but the reason is obvious, viz., that the church has no theory of inspiration. This controversy will compel it to have one. But why has the church no theory? Because it has rejected the principle that the spiritual sense is the test of inspiration. This is the reason that the church is left without any fixed principle upon the subject, and the Word of God, for the most part, without inspiration. Simultaneously with this ominous decision of the Privy Council, has issued a Royal Commission for the revision of the terms of subscription to the Articles and formularies of the Church of England. This Commission has originated from the same cause which we have already mentioned, viz., a longing after greater liberty of thought than has hitherto been permitted, not only in regard to the Thirty-nine Articles, but to the Prayer Book in general. Many of the clergy have given up all idea of reunion with the Church of Rome, although it is still advocated by a small party. They have, however, no wish that the Church of England should remain isolated, and consequently express a great desire to become united with the Eastern Church. In that most interesting history of the Eastern Church, written by Dr. Stanley the present Dean of Westminster, he observes that in this church the doctrine of substitution is unknown; and our readers will be enabled to appreciate the supreme importance to the New Church of the following remarks (pp. 25, 26.):— "Forensic justification,' ' merit,' 'demerit,' 'satisfaction,' 'imputed righteousness,' 'decrees,' represent ideas which in the Eastern theology have no predominant influence, hardly any words to represent them. The few exceptions that occur may be traced directly to accidental gusts of Western influence. In the Western Liturgies direct addresses to Christ are exceptions. In the East they are the rule. In the West, even in Unitarian Liturgies, it is deemed almost essential that every prayer should be closed through Jesus Christ.' In the East such a close is rarely if ever found." Who will now doubt that the voice is crying aloud in the wilderness"Prepare ye the way of the Lord," that "the glory of the Lord may be revealed, and all flesh may see it together"? A. C. THE PHENOMENA OF PLANT-LIFE. No. II.-EARLY SPRING. THE essential sign of spring in northern latitudes is the swelling of the buds upon the trees, and those of the sturdy bushes which the husbandman uses for hedges. The appearance of flowers, except to the experienced eye, cannot always be depended upon. Many that would be thought heralds of the new season are in reality relics of the year that has departed,-epitaphs on the summer of six months before,-memorials rather than prophecies. Such is the case with the wall-flower, which is often seen plentifully in bloom in January, unless the winter be very severe, the succession of flowers from side-shoots having proceeded uninterruptedly perhaps since the previous May. This long-protracted flow of bloom is usually attributable to the flowers being gathered for love-tokens or personal pleasure, and thus hindered from fulfilling the grand purpose for which all flowers are in every case developed, namely, the origination of seed from which new plants shall be reared, to take the place of the parents, when the latter lie withered and dead. As long as a plant is hindered from proceeding with the due preparation of its intended seeds, so long will it persist in its efforts, and renew them, striving, till all its vitality is exhausted, to leave if it be only a single voucher of its honest toil. A thousand times have I noticed this wonderful and quiet energy in operation. In the fields some hungry quadruped bites off the young green flower-head as a relish to the insipid grass ;— no matter, from every joint below, a new shoot is soon put forth; and in a few weeks, where there would have been, perhaps, no more than a single blossom, there are now a dozen flowers. So in the garden some lily hand crops a flower white as itself, and if the structure of the plant permit, by-and-bye the whiteness gleams from one little side branchlet after another, and in a way that would probably never have happened save for the destruction of the first-born. Applying our knowledge of this principle to the interpretation of the Christmas wall-flowers, it is easy to understand how it happens that their bloom lingers so long. Many a posy, when the days were at their best, was probably made odorous with the early blossoms of this cheerful plant; these that come in the dull cold days of winter are the proof of the hindered efforts, and a witness to unflinching perseverance in the fair endeavour,-a perseverance that may read us all a gentle lesson-strive to the last; if we fail, we have at least deserved to win. 130 THE PHENOMENA OF PLANT-LIFE. Very different are such flowers as the yellow pilewort and the golden coltsfoot. These are genuine spring blossoms, never appearing until the new year has made a fair start, nor renewing their flowers in summer and autumn. Being "weeds," and never growing in pastures, they are seldom cropped or gathered, so that the original preparation of bloom is generally followed by successful result in seed. Very pretty is it, when the last of the snow has dissolved from the ground, to see the bright rays of the pilewort among the half-withered relics of the past autumn upon the hedgebank, and their young leaves spreading a carpet over the heretofore brown earth in woods and groves; no less pretty is the spectacle of the coltsfoot, when it opens its yellow disk, formed of a hundred rays as fine as needles, and this without a single leaf to stand in contrast. Both flowers need the sunshine in order that they may expand. On dull and cloudy days they remain fast shut up, but with the first kind beam from the sky they spread their little petals, and glow as long as the atmosphere is genial. The pilewort is not unlike a buttercup, but the leaves are rounded and polished, and it rarely grows taller than the breadth of one's hand. "Weed" it may be in popular estimation, but the wood-pigeons do not so lightly esteem it. The fleshy roots, shaped like little round beans, lie very near the surface of the soil: the rain washes the earth from them, and lays them bare, and these birds come and make their meals on the supply thus provided. Every living creature has its cornfields; true, it is only man who is called upon to sow and reap, to grind and to bake into bread, and this, in order that by virtuous and regular labour he may have his intellect and affections stimulated; but cornfields, in their kind, are spread for everything that eats,-composed, it may be, of the simplest and weakest plants in nature; still, in their importance to tens of thousands of speechless creatures, no less momentous than the broad acres of wheat and barley, oats, rice, rye, millet, and maize, that supply the human population of the earth with their daily sustenance. There is probably no plant in nature that does not directly support the life of some little animal: it was for this purpose that plants were in great measure called into being, and when we are tempted to despise the insignificant ones, and to call them "weeds," we should remember that nothing has been made in vain, and that everything has been designed for some generous purpose. But why should they be called "weeds"? Weeds are flowers out of the place for which Providence designed them. If a lily spring up by some casualty in a potato-bed, it is in that place a weed, quite as much so as a dandelion is among the tulips; but neither of them is a weed in its native woods or fields, since these are the habitations assigned THE PHENOMENA OF PLANT-LIFE. 131 to them, and in which, to eyes that look on the sweet simplicity of creation with joy and pleasure, they are always beautiful. Very much of what we are apt to consider the uncomeliness of things comes in reality of our not seeing them in their natural and proper conditions, but under some artificial and constrained circumstances that interfere grievously with the native characters. Look, for instance, at the unfor tunate monkey, dragged from its native haunts, and carried about the streets on an organ-top. There it may well look ridiculous and even disgusting. But see the creature at play in its native woods, its free nature finding scope and opportunity, and living in harmony with the rudeness of the scene, and instead of being absurd, it becomes graceful, and the tree seems incomplete when the creature quits it. Much the same is it with the despised plants denominated "weeds." True, if allowed to spread unchecked, many kinds establish upon farm-land a disastrous empire, that supersedes the prospective crops, strangling the roots, twining round the stems, or mingling their pernicious seeds with the wholesome grain; but this is a fact belonging to a different class altogether from that which includes the consideration of the absolute and intrinsic beauty and usefulness of the plants. Ragwort, that covers the neglected fields with gaudy yellow, nourishes the caterpillar of a lovely butterfly that will eat no other leaf with content;-thistles, that aggravate the farmer uncareful to nip them in the beginning, supply in their seeds food for innumerable little birds, especially those of the goldfinch kind. Both plants, moreover, in vigour of growth, elegance of organization, clear brightness of colour, and long continuing flow of cheerful bloom, take place with the handsomest that the profusion of nature flings abroad. We may travel many miles, and explore whole provinces, and not find a more charming plant than the crimson muskthistle. In its native haunts and proper abiding places (which are by the edges of green lanes, and on green and breezy downs overlooking the sea, as on that fair green hill at Clevedon, from which we look across the water to South Wales, and far away westwards towards the Atlantic) it lifts a tall and woolly stem, crowned with some half-dozen gorgeous and half-drooping crimson heads, smelling of honey and musk, and more brilliant in effect than ten thousand of the far-fetched, dear-bought, fashionable exotics in gardens. All right-minded people thank God every day for His greater gifts and bounties; it is doubtful if any of us remember to thank Him as steadily for the simple and common things of nature, which we seem to ourselves to feel as our right, or at all events as so much a part of the very idea of the world as to become our lawful inheritance, and thus not |