this pass.

The Society-'Evangelical Alliance' as it is called-at its inception propounded Eight Articles, which, as they are fairly brief, may be given here. They are:

I. The Divine Inspiration, Authority, and Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures.

2. The right and duty of Private Judgment in the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures.

3. The Unity of the Godhead and the Trinity of Persons therein.

4. The utter depravity of human nature in consequence

of the Fall.

5. The Incarnation of the Son of God, His work of Atonement for sinners of mankind, and His Mediatorial intercession and reign.

6. The Justification of the sinner by Faith alone.

7. The work of the Holy Spirit in the Conversion and Sanctification of the sinner.

8. The Divine institution of the Christian Ministry, and the obligation and perpetuity of the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper.

To these Eight Articles was afterwards added a ninth :

The Immortality of the Soul, the Resurrection of the Body, the Judgment of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, with the Eternal Blessedness of the righteous and the Eternal Punishment of the wicked.

It will be seen at once that, as in the case

already cited, these are not dogmas, so much as titles or headings of dogmas; also susceptible of very various interpretation. But the most significant thing in the proposal of these Articles was the manner in which they were set forth :—

'The parties composing this Alliance,' say the promoters, shall be such persons only as hold and maintain what are usually understood to be evangelical views in regard to the matters of doctrine understated.'

And again at the close:

'This brief Summary is not to be regarded in any formal or ecclesiastical sense as a Creed or Confession, nor the adoption of it as involving an assumption of the right authoritatively to define the limits of Christian brotherhood, but simply as an indication of the class of persons whom it is desirable to embrace within the Alliance.'

'The class of persons whom it is desirable' to include! Then the Alliance at its outset renounces the idea of manifesting the unity of all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Some, no doubt, it has been found very 'desirable to include'; and they have undeniably worked together well, and for many admirable purposes. Only this

thing they have not done-they have not manifested the unity of all believers; those, for instance, in the Society of Friends. And further, what is the test applied? That they hold certain welldefined doctrines ? No; but 'what are usually understood to be evangelical views in regard to them.' Usual understanding is very indefinite, may change from age to age, and can scarcely be a guide or help to religious thought!

Now these facts are instanced simply as illustrations of the difficulties which beset every human endeavour to frame a lasting intellectual groundwork for Christian orthodoxy. To love God, to repent of sin, to trust the Divine Redeemer, and to live in charity with all men, one would think, were a sufficient basis for any true Evangelical be hard to formulate

Alliance. Only it might

these things in a creed. And so we must fall back upon the persons whom it is desirable to include' within a narrower circle than that of the great and holy fellowship, the universal Church of the redeemed.

The bearing of these considerations upon Church life and order, both in the present and in

the future, must be reserved for the next Lecture. One practical question, however, presses. Whatever may be the requirement in regard to simple Church membership, it is held by many that a subscription to a Creed or Confession may at any rate be required from the officers, and especially from the teachers, of the Christian community. So in the State enactments that we have been noticing, the obligation is imposed, principally, almost entirely, upon the clergy. Now there is undoubtedly a certain convenience in having a standard to which their instructions may readily be brought, so that those who are entrusted with their appointment may know how they interpret the Divine oracles, and what they hold as the chief doctrines of the Faith. Congregations have their rights as well as Ministers, and will be wise in desiring to know what will be the essentials of pastoral teaching. That the Ministers, therefore, should be prepared to say beforehand: These Thirty-nine Articles,' or 'This Westminster Confession,' or 'This Doctrinal Trust-Deed, contains the lines of truth on which I intend to proceed,' is an advantage to which we cannot be blind. Is not such definite pledge, it is often asked, better

than the profession of a vague, undogmatic theology, which may leave the Christian teacher to wander at large and unchecked into any fields of thought, without any documentary provision for testing his orthodoxy? The proposal to leave him free to ascertain and declare the truth for himself, without the imposition of a human creed, is often represented as a plea for indefiniteness in belief, a religiousness without systematic form; as though the only alternative lay between this and recognised authoritative formula. Hence the charge continually levelled against those who object to creed-subscription, of superficiality and indifference to clear, well-defined, religious truth.

It may be replied, in the first place, that the real alternative is not as alleged. The renunciation of human creeds does not imply indifference to religious truth; only a conviction as to the source where that truth must be sought and learned. As was maintained in the First Lecture of this course, it is of supreme importance to the intellectual and spiritual life that the Divine testimony should be received in its fulness, diligently pondered, distinctly understood. The age more than ever needs that the teachers of the Church should