Rev. Athanase Coquerel,
the far-famed leader of the section of the Reformed Church of France
which does not sympathize with orthodoxy. In the personal appearance of
this celebrated preacher there was little that was heretical or foreign.
With his round face and stout frame you might have taken him for one of
the sleekest of Anglican divines. Nevertheless his sermon was French in
its construction and style of delivery and emphasis. His text was--"One
thing is needful." His argument went to show that that one thing needful
was the love of God, and that forms of faith and ritualism were so many
hills in our way, which blinded the view and impeded our appreciation of
this grand fundamental truth. The discourse, which lasted half an hour,
over, the Rev. W. Miall engaged in extemporaneous prayer, in which there
was a special reference to the death of the Rev. Mr. Tayler, of
Hampstead, one of the committee of the Union, and a Professor of
Manchester New College, London; and then came the Rev. C. Kegan Paul,
Rector of Upminster, in Dorsetshire, with another sermon. It is scarce
necessary to observe that Mr. Paul--a fine, tall, muscular man in the
prime of life, with a black beard and with a voice almost as sonorous (a
Frenchman's lungs always seem better than an Englishman's) as Pastor
Coquerel himself--is a man much distinguished by collegiate success and
Eton fame, and that his sermon evinced high intellectual culture. His
text was, "He is not here, but is risen," and his aim was to show how men
seek the dead Christ rather than the living one. The Reformation was an
attempt to get rid of ritualism and formalism, and now again it is felt
that religion can no longer be confined in an article. It is not only
the Bible we must consult, God has written His Word in life and humanity.
They were not Theists; Christ was a name symbolical of humanity, and they
were, as a matter of fact, Christian men. Nor would they get rid of
Christian phraseology as long as the feeling of the heart clothes itself
in language hallowed by the use of ages. A change is passing over
society, and we have now to study religion in connexion with nature,
science, progress, life. Still, nothing that has nourished the soul of
man can die. All that has been is a part of what is to come, and
sustained by this truth we are not to faint or fail. And then came the
benediction, and ministers and people went home. In this Church of the
future, as it aims