t excuse, not the farthest. But this offensive and
ungrateful spirit is surely unbecoming on the part of those who owe so
much to the Church which they censure. If Christian love would abound on
all sides, how soon would the wounds of Christ's Body heal! If those deep
wounds are to be bound up, it will only be by pouring in oil and wine.
Controversy and argument have been tried for centuries. They have failed.
We must all begin where the beloved St. John so feelingly bids
us,--"Little children, love one another." Love implies humility, and if
we are humble, and stoop to love, we will find hearts all over the world
only longing and praying for the balm of that Divine oil. Then dogmatic
differences will be solved in a new manner, and much more.

It is not a pleasant task to revert to the censures which are hurled
against the Eastern Church, by critics who are obviously ignorant of her
past history, and who seem to have taken no trouble to acquaint
themselves with her present position; but when one is continually met
with the same offensive statements, offensive because untrue, there is
only one thing to be done, and that is to meet them with the truth, and
refute them on every possible occasion, in the hope that in the end the
truth will be vindicated.

The charges have certainly not the charm of variety; they are painfully
monotonous:--The Greek Church is "dead," and "non-missionary." Certainly
non-missionary, if dead! To say of any organization, church or other,
that it is dead and non-progressive, is to say the worst that could be
said.

Dead! And what are the signs of death in the Eastern Church? Truly they
are marvellously unusual. Is it because she preserves the beauty,
dignity, and quiet solemnity, which must ever be associated with true
worship, and refuses to admit methods which are alien to it? Many of our
Churches have become societies, or guilds (a familiar term in these
days), in which are included every attraction which can appeal to the
eyes of the world. A Pleasant Sunday Afternoon, is the guise in which the
worship of God is presented to men who are not attracted by the calm and
rest of God's house; and the methods employed are bringing with them
their inevitable results. We fear the Church is in danger of forgetting
that its prime function is to preserve the Holy Worship of God, and by
its means to establish the saints in The Faith; and that its mission is
to go down to the world, inspiring those who a