Now if, as a trustee of public property, he thinks last, not first, of private ends and personal interests; if, as a bishop of the whole diocese, not of any section of it, he ignores mere party claims and seeks out the best men from all schools of thought, he will yet surely give prominence to these three qualifications: first, that a man by holy living gives evidence of a truly converted heart; secondly, that his teaching faithfully reflects the leading truths of the Gospel, as received by our reformed Church; and lastly, that he has proved by hard work that be will not spare himself in his ministry. In the discharge of these important functions the faithful bishop will ‘give heed unto the doctrine.’ But besides a bishop’s own personal beliefs and actions, he has to deal as a ruler in the Church with the beliefs and actions of others. And here, no doubt, his path is often an anxious one. As long as his clergy keep within the limits of law, of law interpreted not with the rigour of a criminal court but in the tolerant spirit of Christian charity, his duties in this department will be light. But if the law through negligence or through self-will be distinctly broken, the bishop is surely bound, so far as the law arms him with power, to vindicate its authority. Perhaps indeed it is well in the interests of truth that the controversies which have been vexing our Church have somewhat shifted their ground; and that the question now is not so much concerning the colour of a vestment, or the precise position of the clergyman, as of the sacredness of family life, and the free access of the penitent to his God. The public mind of this country is slow to recognise the importance of abstract doctrine, and is somewhat scornfully indifferent to the extravagancies of mediæval ritual. But when the working of a system is shown in practices which introduce the priest into the place of the Saviour—aye, and which threaten the very foundations of morality—public opinion raises its indignant protest, and demands that the evil shall be cast forth from our Church. Let all forbearance be shown to the honest perplexities of thought; but let not a church, which is Protestant to the core, ally herself with the enemies of the Reformation, or cherish within her bosom practices which are Scripturally indefensible, and morally wrong. I venture, however, to think, that in cases which touch no _moral_ ground, the wisdom of a sound expediency, as well as the spirit of the Gospel, suggest the anxious employment of every weapon of persuasion, of every influence which love can devise, before recourse be had to the harsh and repellent forms of law. Truth must ever be the great weapon of persuasion. Strife is an element alien to the Gospel. ‘The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men . . . in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves.’ (2 Tim. ii. 24, 25.) * * * * * I pass on from the official to—