generally the cause of the contention.  The very man who claimed to be the centre of Catholic unity was the grand fomenter of ecclesiastical and political disturbance.  The Sovereign Pontiff, and the Catholic princes with whom he was engaged in deadly feuds, were equally faithless, restless, and implacable.  Freedom of thought was proscribed, and the human mind was placed under the most exacting and intolerable tyranny by which it was ever oppressed.

The mutilation of this Dagon of hierarchical unity is one of the many glorious results of the great Reformation.  The sooner the remaining fragments of this idol be crushed to atoms, the better for the peace and freedom of Christendom.  The unity of the Church cannot be achieved by the iron rod of despotism, neither can the communion of saints be promoted by the sacrifice of their rights and privileges.  “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” [656:1] Christ alone can draw all men unto Him.  The real unity of His Church is, not any merely ecclesiastical cohesion, but a unity of faith, of hope, and of affection.  It is the fellowship of Christian freemen walking together in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost.  It is the attraction of all hearts to one heavenly Saviour, and the submission of all wills to one holy law.  Looking at the past condition or the present aspect of society, we may think the difficulties in the way of such unity altogether insurmountable; but it will, in due time, be brought about by Him “who doeth great things and unsearchable, marvellous things without number.”  Its realization will present the most delightful and impressive spectacle that the earth has ever seen.  “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” [656:2] “Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice, with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion.” [656:3] “And the Lord shall be King over all the earth; in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one.” [656:4] AMEN.

THE END.

[ENDNOTES]

[3:1] Mr Merivale, in his “History of the Romans under the Empire,” (vol. iv. p. 450,) estimates the population in the time of Augustus at eighty-five millions, but in this reckoning he does not include Palestine, and perhaps some of his calculations are rather low.  Greswell computes the population of Palestine at ten millions, and that of the whole empire at one hundred and twenty millions. ("Dissertations upon an Harmony of the Gospels,” vol. iv. p. 11, 493.)

[7:1] See the article [Greek:  Hetairai] in Smith’s “Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.”

[8:1] “We despise,” says an early Christian writer, “the supercilious looks of philosophers, whom we have known to be the corrupters of innocence, adulterers, and tyrants, and eloquent declaimers against vices of which they themselves are guilty.”—­Octavius of Minucius Felix.