religion, which, so far as we can judge, was purely emotional, producing mere passionate bursts of enthusiasm, and floods of rash vows. Etty's piety corresponded to the general tenor of his life-it was as a river, flowing gently down, widening, and deepening, and gathering strength year by year, until it lost itself at last in the ocean of eternity. We must not pass a harsh or a hasty judgment upon him because he was disposed occasionally to coquet with Romanism: this did not disturb the general character of his piety; and his fondness for a dilettante prayer-table with other knick-nacks of devotion (as Kingsley calls them), may easily be ascribed to his indulgence in poetic fancy, rather than to any real attachment to Romish doctrines. A few extracts from his journals will shew the real nature of his faith; we add to them no comment. "My soul pours itself out in grateful adoration to Him, the bountiful Giver, that he has given me so much when I deserve so little; that he has added the mind's calm sunshine,' and that heartfelt ease, without which all is vapid and spiritless. May He teach me to use them as becometh me! . to feel the frail tenure by which I hold these blessings; how thin the partition that divides us from eternity."-Vol. I. p. 313. "O Father of every good and perfect gift! do Thou be pleased to assist my blindness; and grant that in this and all other advances to knowledge, I may be ever conscious of Thy goodness and use them to the advantage and good of society. For Christ's sake. Amen."-Vol. I. p. 58. His religious temperament was very obvious in one respect-in the deep veneration which was excited within him by sacred architecture and sacred music. He had the soul of a poet as well as of a Christian, and he loved to see man's best gifts offered to his Maker. He rejected with scorn the prejudices that have lingered amongst us since the time of the Puritans, and which hold beauty in religion to be either Popish or devilish, or both: he had no sympathy with those who think that man's piety is always so pure and heavenly as to receive no aid from holy music or holy temples. Gothic architecture was his especial favorite; his enthusiasm on behalf of Westminster Abbey and York Minster was almost unbounded. To the latter church he was especially attached: even in his early boyhood he had loved to worship there; in the fulness of his manhood he loved to worship there still, and he has left us not a few records of the delight with which it filled him. We quote a few, as a specimen of many, and we cannot avoid noticing the striking testimony which they afford to the truth of the principles which were laid down in the preceding number of our Review, as to the effect of Gothic architecture on the mind. "Who shall say," he writes, "that architecture is of no importance after coming out of York Cathedral? Who shall say when the anthem swells in notes of glory, that music is not? When I listened to the inspiring sound of the organ, and looked at the sublime building, above and around, and the glorious colours in the painted saints, martyrs, and sacred storia' in the windows -chastening in rich and solemn hues the light of heaven-I felt three additional arguments for my principle of giving the highest moral elevation to the Fine Arts, by enlisting them in the cause of our holy religion." “Oh that I could have seen my country," he exclaims, “when her brows were crowned with gems, like what our abbeys, our cathedrals, and churches once were! when schism had not split the Christian world into fighting and disputing fanatics; when the dignity of Christ's holy temple, and of his worship, were thought improved by making the Fine Arts handmaids thereto; and the finest efforts of the soul of man were made subservient to His glory." And he cannot refrain from praising the men who "whatever corruptions might have crept into their worship could apply the best, the most glorious of Arts to the service, honour, and glory of Him who made and sustains us; and-by thus applying them, and drawing nearer to Him in prayer and praise-soften, sweeten, and ameliorate the ruggedness, selfishness, and barbarity of our nature." We We might dwell upon other qualities which Etty possessed in no mean degree; we might extol his gentleness, his sincerity, his kind-heartedness, his tender feeling, but our space compels us to draw our remarks rapidly to a close. have placed him before our readers as a painter and as a man: as a painter we have found some points for animadversion, as a man we have set him forth as an example. There are few lives from which we could learn so much, for we learn positive as well as negative lessons; we learn not merely what to do but what to avoid. We learn what to do -to be patient, to be earnest, to be undaunted; we learn what to avoid-giving any cause of offence to the weak and tender-souled. The most fitting moral to Etty's life, and the best counsel which we could offer to any artist, whether poet, painter, or builder, is wrapt up in the words of one who has just arisen amongst us, and who has developed our own theories on art more fully than any one who has preceded him: · 66 "O Artist! range not overwide, Lest what thou seek be haply hid "God's glory lies not out of reach, The moss we crush beneath our feet, Have solemn meanings strange and sweet. ART. III.-1. Reports of the Evangelical Alliance. 18481854. 2. The Knot of To-day and a Hand to Undo it. Seeleys. 1853. 3. Cautions for the Times. No. XXVIII. 4. The Paris Conference of Christians. August, 1855. THE Royal visit to Paris, however interesting in its political aspect and historical interests, and fascinating in the splendour of its entertainments, has been followed by an event less conspicuous to the general eye, but perhaps of equal importance in the results to which it may lead. Exactly three centuries after the famous massacre of St. Bartholomew, Protestant evangelical Christians of France, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, and America, have met in Paris, on occasion of the Industrial Exposition, to confer together on the state of religion throughout the world, and the best means of counteracting the danger of the times in our several countries, and helping forward the progress of the Gospel. The meeting itself is a pledge of the advance already made, through the Evangelical Alliance and kindred efforts, in the practical cultivation of Christian union, and an augury, perhaps, of more cheering and extensive triumphs of brotherly love. It will furnish a suitable occasion for examining a question of high importance, which has, perhaps, seldom THE NATIONAL CHURCH. 299 been treated thoroughly, in reference to our actual circumstances the duty of the Church of England, whether publicly in the person of its authorities, or more privately in its individual numbers, to cultivate Christian union with other orthodox Protestant churches, and true Christians of every name. The Evangelical Alliance, it is well known, was instituted a few years ago with the express objects to promote brotherly intercourse and union among British and Foreign Christians who hold firmly the great truths of the Reformation. Its principles and constitution have been warmly defended, and vigorously assailed. In spite of the mistakes of friends, or the fears and suspicions of enemies, it has made a silent, steady progress; and the late conference at Paris is one proof and sign of its growing success. But there are still many excellent men, of cautious temperament, who have an undefined and mysterious dread for all such efforts. They own the object to be highly desirable, if it were attainable, but condemn the effort as Utopian. Schemes for Christian union, in their eyes, are either bubbles, sure to burst, however they may rival the rainbow in their fiery colours, or else explosive mixtures which threatens the foundation of our whole ecclesiastical polity. We do not share these fears or scruples. On the contrary, we believe that the highest expediency, the lesson of the calmest wisdom, no less than the warm and zealous instincts of Christian love, should prompt English churchmen, sound in faith and piety, and sincerely and firmly attached to our own Church, to take part in such efforts. We are not aware, however, that the subject has ever received a full discussion, on Scriptural grounds, with a direct reference to the position of the Church England. The object of the present article will be to supply the omission, and we believe that few topics of higher importance, or more seasonable at the present time, could find a place within the pages of our Review. Apart from all questioms of truth or falsehood, of schism or superstition, it must be owned that the Church of England and Ireland now holds a place of influence and historical importance, second only among professedly Christian bodies, to the Church of Rome. The number of its habitual worshippers, there can be no doubt, considerably exceeds that of any other Protestant body. But this fact would alone leave a very imperfect impression of its real claim to superior eminence. It is the national Church of England and Ireland, and of the British sovereign. By this means it shares in the influence and eminence of the British empire, confessedly the first of Protestant European powers; and it would hardly be too much to say, when all the elements of parties are fairly weighed, the first of all powers on the face of the earth. Inferior to many states in its home territory; to France, in central position and continental influence; to Russia, in military power and massive range of territory; to the United States, its own daughter, in rapid and gigantic growth; its world-wide commerce and colonial empire, throw a weight into the scale, which in point of moral influence for good or evil throughout the world, enable it to outstrip every rival and defy competition. The keys of all parts of the earth are in its hands. The sun is always rising and setting on its dominions. From the West to the East Indies, from the Arctic snows of Rupert's Land to its Antipodes in New Zealand; every region of the earth bears witness to the ascendency of British enterprise. The oldest and the newest of political societies, the vast peninsula of Hindoostan, and the island continent of Australia, own the sway of the queen of Great Britain; and the Church of England indirectly, in her person, may be said to bear sway over the north of America, the circuit of Africa, the whole of India and Australia, and not less than two hundred millions of souls. Viewed historically, through the course of the three centuries since the Reformation, the English Church may claim a hardly inferior eminence. Though slightly later in its origin, as a Reformed Church, than its foreign sisters in Germany and Switzerland, it soon took the lead politically in the contest with the Church of Rome, and yielded its full share to the stores of modern theology; while, in common with its island offshoots, it surpassed them before long, in the practical and social labours of Christian benevolence. And though the faults and sins of its rulers, conspiring with the temptations of a destructive and unquiet time of religious turbulence, robbed it of a large proportion of the piety and zeal which might perhaps, with wiser counsels, have continued to be its strength and honour, it has retained to the present hour, by the blessing of God, abundant tokens of spiritual vitality; and has, perhaps, rather gained than lost ground of late years, in the relative place which it occupies among other Protestant bodies, at home and abroad; its sisters or daughters, its rivals or friends. In all our Colonies it has begun to lengthen its cords and strengthen its stakes, and the Episcopal Church of America, virtually one with it in doctrine and discipline, has been rapidly advancing to |