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2Q& THE LEADER. [No. 310, Saturday,
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; CH^ * ¦¦ History of (Thrhttan Churches...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Rymer Jones On The Animal Kingdom. S Ths...
Why ? Because bone gives solid support to the muscles j the mollusc has muscles , ergo , he must have bones . And lest any one should think this might be answered by saying the mollusca have—for the most part at least—shells , we will substitute actinia for mollusca . Actinia , or acaliphse , have no shells , no bones . Are their no-hones diffused ? Naturalists observe that nerveless animals move and feel , and conclude that they must have nerves ; but plants move and feel , and no one pretends that they have nerves . Page 625 , this extraordinary passage , obviously reprinted -without alteration from the first edition , dese * vesnotice : — " The composition of the skull of fishes is one of the most difficult studies connected with their historyj nevertheless it is a subject of very considerable importance , and has recently occupied the attention of the most celebrated continental anatomists . " In a work
dedicated to Professor Owen such a passage may well excite surprise . A note informs us that Geoffroy Sfc . Hilaire , Spix , Rosentbal , Meekel , Bakker , Bojanus , and Oien , are the anatomists referred to ; but Professor Jones must have peculiar notions of the word " recently , " if these writers are recent . Geoflrby St . Hilaire ' s speculations bear the date of 1824 ; Spix's of 1816 ; Meekel 1826 ; Bosenthal and Bakker (?) , Bojanus 1818 ; and Oken 1807-43 . Agassiz andVogt , tbe only recent writers we can think of , are not named . Page 615 , the effect of animal heat upon the instincts and affections , is
made the subject of a somewhat absurd speculation . Fishes and reptiles , because cold-blooded , ate said to be " utterly careless of their progeny ;" but "no sobner does the vital heat of the parent become sufficient for the purposesdesigned by nature , than all the sympathies of parental fondness become developed . " It is unnecessary to refute such a speculation in any more elaborate way than by opposmg two facts , with which Professor Jones must be perfectly familiar : there « i"c fishes who build nests , and take great care of theb young ( the Hassar and Goramy ); and there are birds who do not take care of their yjovjig ( CiicK 6 o ^ iLGcto-bird ) . that
P ^ e 601 ^| he passage declaring man ' s organisation is constructed on principles the ( most aberrant and remote ' * frbmthose of other animals , seems to tts ^ sQ mons ^ misprinted , or that we do no £ irigtr t ^^ ^ Wc £ must not fet ; dtn * p ^^ g ^ ordbe one of abjection , however , as that would coifc ^^^ ng ra We cordially conimeid-it to every lover pfn ^ turai history as 1 he besti and properly considered , the cheapest workof the kind iit bur language ;
2q& The Leader. [No. 310, Saturday,
2 Q & THE LEADER . [ No . 310 , Saturday ,
; Ch^ * ¦¦ History Of (Thrhttan Churches...
; CH ^ * ¦¦ History of ( Thrhttan Churches and Sects ; from theearliest Ages of ' Christianity . ByTier . ¦ - ¦ . ' ; 'J . '¦¦&' , ! ; Mii . rsdeni ;; M . A . ¦' ¦ . '' . ¦ ¦ ¦ •¦; . ' Bichgrd Bentley-Thei ^ e ' are no less ihari forty-four Christian- Churches and sects enumerated liy'Mr ^ Msffsdei : ; in the ^ i ^ rk before us . We do not object to ttiis variety of ? Mso | iati (> n-r-t 1 us division of labour in the spiritual -vineyard . " Nor do we & arj , ^ fch tnany earnest but morbid thinkers , that the interests of religion an $ ^ p ie ^ su ^ It is esse ^ d ^^ p ' 'th 0 i'elui ! i 4 atiQiL of truth that there should be many seeking after it , arid th ^ ttiieseinquiriiig spirits should possess different interests , different feeling ^ difl ^ rent labits of thought . ; So long as the question , " What is truth ?" rettSwis ^ tniansw ^ ed i * itl ^ ma 1 ^ ematical precision , so long as it can only be ^ ap ^ roachied b ^ a series ' of approjdmate probabilities , the more minds Jhat ate engaged in discovering it , the better . One inquirer derives assistance from the other ; the energies of each are mutually stimulated ; the intellect is saved from staenation .- ^ -the lowest condition to which it can be reduced .
Mr- Marsa ^ tresblfed , he tells us , to execute the present work ( which cc 6 wes'its existence , and something of its character ,-to the suggestions of Mri Bentley" ) with the utmost impartiality . The task was not easy . Divest ourselves of prejudice as we may— - of all conscious prejudice , in fact—we cannot eradicate those qualities—semi-mental , semi-sentialwhich force its to regard adverse opinions and tenets from a personal and singular point of view . Mr . Marsden has very conveniently cleared the way for himself . Anticipating a charge of loose generalisation on account of the omission of some minor or rather minimum bodies of Christians , he prepares to meet it by observing— " It has , unfortunately , been the aim of ecclesiastical writers to enumerate sects which either never had a distinct existence of
their own , or were merely private quarrels , or eddies in the current of unfixed opinion , which disappeared as soon as they existed . " Thus he disposes of the ' unmanageable societies . He then proceeds to explain that the primitive Church , notwithstanding the innumerable sections into which it seemed broken up , consisted in reality of only two parties—the " orthodox" and the " heretical" Christians—the latter being subdivided into the Arians and the Gnostics . Mh \ Marsden continues to say , " all the controversies of the Reformation hinge upon the question qf sacramental grace . " This simplified arrangement of disputed points will doubtless surprise many who have been accustomed to hear one profession of Christians vomiting forth thebitterest language against another profession of Christians upon dogmas that seemed hydraheaded , and to produce new subjects of . discussion and invective , as , one after another , each dogma seemed to perish in the mel ' te . They will naturally
be led . tb ask why the spirit of charity has been allowed to suffer violence and brother to rise up' against brother if the points of difference bo so few ? Again , " Questions of church governments , " we find a little further on > ' * , range themselves under three great types—absolutism , mixed government , and pure ' democracy ; " Were these premises borne in mind , the study of Church history would be less perplexing to the student ; and the real unity of the Church would frequently appear beneath external , and perhaps needtesfc and unjustifiable differences of form and name . At least it is a foolish tWtfg ^/ t o multiply and exaggerate the differences , —after all far too manypwn unhappily disturb the great Christian family . We perfectly agree with ^^ W arsdeja ; but fear that the fable of the chameleon and the clown will , « ot \ yithatan < ling , be re-acted day by day . It matters little whether there bo "SSm & j ' J ? ¦ drcd P ° . mts of difference—all these discussions , these shadca ^ " ^"" raorit and doctrine would have a beneficial rather than an ambiguous S ^ f' ?? nWa < ljWoul ( J men but U 8 e forbearance and cease to constitute ; £ t ™^ £ -f 3 W " ^ raw > tera of * hoir fellow creatures' opinions . Mr . Maraaen ^ i ^ h ^ zeia tocflauftify Christiana of many denominations under one head ,
notes the anatomical coincidences of the genus . The species belonging to each are still very numerous , and disputes are still as bitter as in theiiaj's of Bellarmine and his twenty-four adversaries . Now for the book . We open at page 3 , vol . I ., and read , " In 1555 the Jesuits first made their appearance on the coast of Abyssinia ; " and two pa » es further on , " But the mission of the Jesuits failed , and they were formally recalled by a bull dated from St . Peter ' s , a . d ., 1550 . " Again , at p . 16 in the same volume , "The great military captain ( against the Albigenses ) was Simon de Montfort , lord of a fief near Paris , and in right of his mother , an English lady , Earl of Leicester . " Simon de Montfort , generalissimo of the French forces led against the Albigenses , fell in an assault against Toulouse in the early part of the thirteenth century . The first earl of Leicester was
created by Henry III . in the year 1256 , several years later . There can be no glory in claiming such an ^ Apolyon for a countryman ; such inaccuracies should be expunged from this work if it be designed as a standard of reference . Nor are we prepared to arrive at the conclusion with regard to the theological doctrines of * he Albigenses with which Mr . Marsden expresses himself satisfied . He asserts of the Albigenses , for example , " ¦ that Roman Catholic writers have handed them down as heretics of the Manicha ^ an School , and that many Protestant writers have adopted and given wider circulation to the charge . " " Mr . Elliott , " he proceeds to say , " has , I think , clearly re-established their orthodoxy . " It is difficult at this distance of time , and without more positive documentary evidence than we at present possess , to determine precisely " what were their articles of belief . " Dr . Schmidt maintains , in his learned treatise , that the Albigexises held Maniehzean doctrines , and the testimony he adduces seems to justify his conclusion . Still , it
is difficult to ascertain what their creed really was j it is not improbable that MSS . in the public library of Toulouse , if carefully examined , would throw more . light on the discussion ; but these still lie buried in the dust of that ancient institution , and are likely long to remain there undisturbed . But -we are not left altogether in ignorance . Even the enemies of the Albigenses leave us sufficient materials to draw a not unfavourable picture of them . It is impossible to deny to this persecuted sect great purity of manners ; excessive zeal , amounting , in many instances , to fanaticism , and an unplilosophical contempt of the Church of Rome . We may regard them as the first Protestants i the earliest asserters of the liberty of thought against tlie spiritual tyranny of the middle ages . . .. they were pioneers dealing away the ignorance and superstition which choked up the avenues of the mind j the heralds of a bright day of intelligence after a long night of anarchy and darkness—alight , like the false Aurora of the East , destined to be swallowed up in a still deeper cloud .
Of the Church . of Rome Mr . Marsden has an able sketch . He traces her gradual rise to power , the means she adopted , the subtleties she indulged in , the materials slie moulded , the organisation she employed ; all and every part of her complex machinery— -employed to maintain the theory— " that since to- the pope all spiritual power had been delegated by Christ , so too all temporal powerwas ultimately vested in him for the good of the Church . " He follows out the result of this doctrine ; describes the security and corruption of the Church when her ambition seemed achieved ; depicts the ferocity ^ with which , awakened to the consciousness of danger by the denunciations of Luther and Calvin , she stretched forth her hand to eradicate their menacing apostacy . We are also shown how prostrate she lay at
the close of the nineteenth century , and the strength she has since regained : — "In tbe history of the world there has been nothing more surprising than the sudden renovation of the Church of Rome . During the last lalf-century she seemed to be at the point of death ; she has reinstated herself in her long-lost dignities , and asserts and wield a power far less , it is true , than that vhich she once had , but immeasurably greater than that which she professed during the two previous centuries . ' * We have not space to notice the fortunes of the Churches of England , Ireland , or Scotland , the Independents , the Wesley ans , or tbe other important bodies of Christians , that find a space in these encyclopaedic volumes . " Moimonisrn is not entitled to be termed a Christian sect .
It stands in tlie same relationship to Christianity with Mabommedanism . In both instances the founder of a mew faith professed himself the autlior of a new revelation : while , at the same time , the Holy Scriptures were treated with a certain measure of respect , some of the doctrines prevalent amongst its professors are such that devout Christians must hold in abhorrence , and otliers are childish and absurd . It is a question of their future * It is questionable whether the Mormonites will be more dangerous as one of the United States , or as an independent government ; for , if their demand to be admitted into tbe federal
Union be rejected , they will , no doubt , proclaim themselves a sovereign state . They may be crushed , or perhaps exterminated ; but-it seems not beyond the reach of probability that they may long continue to hang upon the outskirts of civilisation to spoil and devastate—the Mahomcdans of tbe Western World . " We can see no cause wherefore they should be crushed or exterminated . Their doctrines and practices are the result of discontent and ignorance . Why should not their union with the great confederacy bring them to reason ? Patience is required . The sword of persecution is not the arm of truth .
The Oxford Tractnrians are . treated under a separate head as the Anglo-Catholics . About the year 1833 , says Mr . Marsden , a cry was raised that the Church of England was in danger . A conference was held at the residence of a private clergyman , when a resolution was passed for the support of Church principles , and a tract prepared entitled the " Churchman ' s Manual . " This was the first tract of a series which reached the ninetieth number to be interrupted by the violence of tlio storm it had raised . The Christian Observer , with sacred gall , stigmatised tbo teachings of these tracts . " The decrees of the Council of Trent , " it wrote in April , 1834 , ' uro not moro undtsguiaedly Popish than these Oxford tracts . " The Edinburgh Review , in a paper written by Dr . Arnold of Rugby , also denounced them . Tract « ighiy-seven put forth the doctrine of Reservation . * 'Th . o prevailing notion of bringing forward the doctrine of the atonement , " it said , " explicitly and prominently on all occasions , is evidently quite opposed to what we consider the teaching of scripture . " The unequivocal and naked ox-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 1, 1856, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01031856/page/16/
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