For the Church itself I fear not. In so far as the Church of England (so called) has had Christ in her and God with her, she is indestructible and immortal. In so far as she has trusted in outward advantage, and suffered herself, in her priests or in her people, to become sluggish, lukewarm, contemptuous, or persecuting—in so far let a change into adversity—God grant it—reform her. The great question for all of us, in our several stations, more especially in the days which are now coming, or almost come, upon our Church, must be this one of the text, _Why repair ye not the breaches of the House_? Let the Priests of the Temple ask it—ask it of themselves—Are they trusting at all in the advantages of an Establishment, and negligent, in the same degree, of that personal industry, of that individual self-sacrifice, which alone can justify their endowment, maintain their honour, or do their work? If the Established Church of England, as such, be swept away, then, along with it, will go all idle, inconsistent, scandalous Ministers: those who are to serve at God’s Altar afterwards must be only such as are respected by their people: let it not have to be said that England would gain as much as she loses by ceasing to have an endowed, an established Ministry, inasmuch as, quite as often as not, the Parish Minister was an indolent, an unworthy, or an inefficient man! This is the way in which the Priests must set themselves to repair the Temple-breaches. Then for the People. To what end does a Church exist amongst us? To what purpose this costly, this almost magnificent apparatus of vestment and ritual, of Cathedral Church and elaborate minstrelsy? Does it mean anything, or nothing? If it represents to the country, in symbol and form, the wants of man’s soul, and the absolute necessity of a Divine communion, then prove it by the using! Do not talk of the duty of the State, of the rights of the Church, of Apostolical Succession and an authorized Ministry—and never use any! When the Church of England ceases, with our will or without it, to be an established, privileged, or favoured Church at all; then, how many of you will be found to come forward in its maintenance? How many of you will worship here, when there is no longer any traditional or conventional propriety in doing so? How many will accept their position, in reference to man, as only one out of fifty or a hundred denominations—treat with all respect and charity others who follow not with them—and yet, for themselves, become but the more earnest and devout Churchmen, in proportion as State aid and legal endowment become things of the past—things, it may be, of remote and almost forgotten history?