Christendom: Sketched front History in the Light of Holy Scripture.
By Charles Girdlestono, M.A. (Sampson Low and Co.) —Mr. Girdlestono, wo should tell our readers at once, is not at all satisfied with the con- dition of Christendom as it has been or as it is In the "light of Holy Soripturo " it seems very dark to him indeed, especially dark when his vision travels to the neighbourhood of such regions as Rome. "In the long list of Raman Popes, amongst many fit to match with a Nero or Mathieu, no Trojan, no Antoninus Pius, can be discerned. We find mot one who, with the light of the Gospel in his hand, sought to abase blmsolf and to lift up his brethren ; proclaiming to Christendom, as he descended from his throne, and laid aside his sceptre and tiara, that his position was untenable, that the Papal primacy was a lie from beginning to end, that no minister of the Church had a higher office to discharge than the oversight of his brother ministers within a limited district, that all true Christian ministers and people are alike Inembors of a royal priesthood." Is it not somewhat unreasonable to complain that no such frank acknowledgment of error, no such penitent avowal of purpose to amend, was ever forced from the lips of a Roman Pontiff ? What would Mr. Girdlestono say if his neighbour the Dissenting minister were to accuse him of being more like Judas than 5t. John, beoauso he does not come out of his rectory with his tithe- book in, We hand, and maintain that a State Church established and en- dowed is a corrupted and corrupting thing,—disavow, in fact, all that his
position implies ? The truth is that such avowals, whether true or false, are not to be expected either from the Pope of Rome or from the Reotor of Kings winford. We do not partioularly admire Popes, but we can believe that some of them were honest men, nay, did good work in their time for the Church of ()hest. The reader must judge for him- self from this specimen whether our author's view of "Christendom "is /kelp to be inutructing.
Previous page
