The great aim of all these arrangements would be to discover by inquiry and discussion what is best in all human interests and affairs, in view of the immortality of man, and the risks and dangers of eternity, and also to devise the best modes of influencing all to right action. Were this life the end of our being, and were all questions of right and wrong to be settled in reference to the well‐being of our race in this short span, no such separate class of religious leaders and organized instrumentalities would be needful. But if men are to be _trained_ to act with reference to the invisible state as the _chief_ concern, then organized instrumentalities to resist the overruling tide of worldliness become indispensable. The full tendencies of such organizations, based _exclusively_ on the principles of common sense, must be a matter of speculation merely, for the world has had no experience of this kind. As yet we have only the experience of mankind as to systems in which the teachings of common sense have been combined with contradictory influences of false dogmas, which have been sustained by the strongest organizations, civil and ecclesiastical. We will now trace some of the tendencies of the Augustinian system as they have been exhibited in the history of church organizations. It has been shown that the Augustinian theory of a depraved nature is the foundation doctrine alike of the Catholic and the Protestant churches. All agree that man by nature is so miserably misformed that the gift of the Holy Spirit purchased by Christ to re‐create is his sole hope of escape from everlasting perdition, while there is little or no ability to understand or obey God’s revealed will until this gift is imparted. From this originated a priesthood as the medium through which this renewing gift is to be obtained, and who are the only authorized interpreters of God’s revealed will. The transmission of this power through the rite of ordination, preserved in direct succession from the apostles, is the leading point in the Episcopal organization. Still more is this carried out to extreme results in the Catholic church. Both organizations assume that “the church” which has this power, does not include _the people_, but is the priesthood alone. It is the ecclesiastics of these churches who are to interpret the Bible for the people, and the people are to receive these decisions as from God. This is the _theory_, while common sense and the Bible have more or less modified its practical adoption, especially in the Episcopal churches.