er there
is implanted in us a presence of freedom, purity and love, there is a
testimony to the name of the Holy Ghost." Very fine, no doubt; also
very soporific. One is inclined to mutter a sleepy Amen. If this
passage means anything at all it implies that all who know truth, admire
excellence, and have any share in freedom and virtue, are testators
to the names of Father, Son and Holy Ghost; so that many Atheists are
Trinitarians without knowing it. "In Christianity," says the Dean, "no
thing is of real concern except that which makes us wiser and better."
That is precisely what the sceptic says, yet for that coroners reject
his service on juries, and rowdy Christians try to keep him out of
Parliament when he has a legal right to enter. But the Dean adds:
"Everything which does make us wiser and better is the very thing which
Christianity intends." That is, Christianity means just what you like to
find in it. How can a man of Dean Stanley's eminence and ability
write such dishonest trash? Must we charitably, though with a touch of
sarcasm, repeat Lamb's words of Coleridge--"Never mind; it's only his
fun?"

GOD AND THE QUEEN.

(March, 1882.)

The Queen is now safely lodged at Mentone. Although-the political
outlook is not very bright, there is pretty sure to be a good solid
majority to vote a dowry for Prince Leopold's bride; and so long as
royalty is safe it does not much matter what becomes of the people. That
dreadful Bradlaugh is gagged; _he_ cannot open his mouth in the House
of Commons against perpetual pensions or royal grants. The interests of
monarchy are in no immediate peril, and so the Queen is off to Mentone.

Now she is gone, and the loyal hubbub has subsided, it is just the time
to consider her late "providential escape" from the bullet which was
never fired at her.

What is the meaning of _providential?_ God does all or nothing. There is
a special providence in the fall of a sparrow, as well as in the fall of
empires. In that case _everything_ is providential. But this is not the
ordinary view. When a railway accident occurs those who do not come to
grief ascribe their preservation to Providence. Who then is responsible
for the fate of those who perish? Centuries ago Christians would have
answered, "the Devil." Now they give no answer at all, but treat the
question as frivolous or profane.

Thomas Cooper, in his _Autobiography_, says that the perfecting touch
was given to his conversi