to be, it is clear there will be nothing derogatory to
the ministerial office. The committee were seated in various parts of
the hall, while the ministers in black gowns occupied the platform.
Apparently never in Freemasons' Hall had there met there men more
spiritual and anxious for Divine guidance, and devout. As to the issue
of it all we can safely and reverently wait.

There are two sides to every picture--two aspects, at the least, in which
human schemes and organizations may be viewed. On the first night, as
regards the Free Christian Union, we had the one view which must have
cheered its promoters; on the next, when the business meeting was held,
when we were told of what the Society had done and what it was going to
do, an element of a very different character appeared. In this great
capital, at this season of the year, when London is crowded with
notabilities, the managers had to go to Cambridge for a young man to
preside, who had--we say it respectfully--really a physical
disqualification for the office. Then there was a very young gentleman,
quite unknown to fame, called on to second a resolution, and forced on to
the platform from the body of the hall to say that and nothing more. As
a matter of fact, the Society had enrolled, we believe, a couple of
congregations, and voted a grant of 5_l._ to the Free Christian Church at
Lynn. Nevertheless, with a platform on which few men save those
connected with the Unitarian denomination appeared, and with but little
response even from that body, the Society aims to influence the public
mind, especially by the press, by the publication of essays on the
connexion between scientific theology and pure religion, the Bible as
literature, dogma, prophecy, miracles, the possibility of a national
formula of public devotion, the ethics of conformity, the place of
religion in education, the limits of State action in ecclesiastical
organizations. In some quarters it was evident that the feeling was that
the Society had better aim at some practical work, such as the
reconstruction of the National Church on the bases laid down in its own
preamble; and one speaker, forgetful of the fact that the Church of Rome
denied the right of private judgment in matters of religion _in toto_,
asked whether any effort had been made to secure its sympathy and
co-operation. It says little for the meeting that such a puerile
question was politely received. As to speaking, indeed, the meeti