minds, and the decision of their own party, are enough to lead them all to truth; wiser, calmer, and loftier minds always feel it at once a duty and a privilege to know what have been the sentiments of the wise and the good in all ages on questions of great difficulty and of great moment for the interests of humanity. The knowledge of these sentiments gives them a friendly and wholesome warning against error, and strengthens and confirms them in the acceptance and declaration of the truth. I do not mean that our judgments on moral questions are to be referred to what is commonly called public opinion, for of all arbiters of human actions, public opinion, in the common sense of the word, is the most contemptible, since it usually means the opinion of the day, and "how begot, how nourished," is reckoned of no consequence.

Every one, indeed, who has watched public life is aware, that the loudest voices usually come from the weakest heads, and that they are misguided either by their own ignorance and passion, or by the arts of those who have an interest in their mistakes. How con

stantly does it happen that a few months or a few days change this public opinion, the mere cry of the multitude; and that they who have bowed

to it as the proper judge of right and wrong, find that they have been guided by those who were under the influence of passion, and whose judgment would be worth nothing, even if passion had had no influence with them. In the moment of coolness and reflection, a better, a calmer, a clearer voice is heard, the voice of the wise and the good, which was drowned by the roar of vulgar passion, but is heard in its calm and steady gentleness, when the vulgar roar has died away. This alternation of passion and reason, of ignorance and wisdom, has prevailed in all ages of the world. The ignorance and the violence die away, and leave no traces behind them, except the marks of destruction. The clear and gentle voice of wisdom and truth leaves its precious records, its written and indelible monument in the successive pages of history. Violence and falsehood are inconsistent, and to one thing constant never." In the "wrath and wreck of yesterday," may probably perish the very idol, which, to the scorn and pity of all good men, was set up by passion and folly the day before. But as the tale of truth is simple, so is it one. The wise and good of this day love and hate the same things which were loved and hated by

the wise and good of the last generation, by the wise and good five hundred years ago, by the wise and good of every time and country. Collect their opinions, find what the wise and good, under God's guidance, as such men are, have uniformly agreed in holding up for imitation or for warning, and then you have indeed a public opinion, whose voice ought to be allpowerful, and to which a ready, cheerful, and thankful obedience should be given. One of the exceeding benefits conferred by history, is, that it thus constitutes a really sound tribunal of public opinion. We not only may despise, but we are bound to despise public opinion, in the common sense, on so many occasions, that evil men may plausibly despise it even on the rare occasions, when it happens to speak the words of soberness and truth. But the tribunal thus set up by history, we may not despise, except at our peril, but must thankfully refer to it as the invaluable interpreter of the holy principles laid down in God's word. We shall thus avoid the evils so constantly brought down on the private lot, and on the public fortunes by making the opinion of an individual, or a party, or a generation, the arbiter in matters which have

received the decision of all wise men, of all right parties, and of all generations.

If religion then stood on no higher grounds than any other questions touching mankind, Church History would on these assume a great But importance in the eyes of reasonable men. we must remember, that as the questions which it embraces relate not to passing and perishing interests, but to eternity, so they must have roused the attention, and engaged the thoughts and energies of mighty minds in all ages, in a degree proportionable to their vast, their unspeakable importance, to their influence in deciding the awful question of our weal or woe hereafter. We may feel perfectly confident then that the voice of history will disclose to us the results of the careful, earnest and anxious deliberations of the best and brightest of the sons of men, on the most important and interesting questions which present themselves to the mind. But high as this raises the necessity for the study of Church History, this is far from being The matters which the whole of the case. come under our especial consideration as Christians, are not the naked offspring of human reason exercising itself upon the subject which

.concerns its eternal interests, but are truths revealed to us by God himself, with this especial promise, that he will be with his Church in all ages, so that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the great truths of the Gospel. It therefore becomes of unspeakable importance, that we should know what truths have been held by the Church in all ages, because their general acceptance, combined with the remembrance of God's promise, makes them binding on us. Whatever in religion is new, is, eo nomine, false. Whatever in the strict sense of the words is old, that is, whatever has been handed down from the apostolic times through the lapse of ages to us, that is, eo nomine, true.

Had I no other reason to assign, this alone would make the study of Church History imperative in every case where men are inquiring for themselves. But besides this great and general reason, we cannot turn our eyes to controversy without becoming sensible of its necessity. It is the entire want of this knowledge which causes so much needless or useless controversy; it is the entire absence of all knowledge of the necessity for it, which makes controversy constantly so disgusting. Nothing can be more unreasonable than to complain of another man for differ