282 EPISCOPAL CHURCH. [CHAP. XXXVI. 



claim to originality 3 should they apply their maxim 

 of rotation in office to a body of academical lecturers. 

 On Sunday we attended service in an Episcopal 

 church. The young preacher dwelt largely on the 

 supreme authority of the Church, and lamented 

 that many dogmas and pious usages, which had re 

 ceived the unbroken sanction of fifteen centuries, 

 should have been presumptuously set at naught by 

 the rebellious spirit of the sixteenth century, the 

 great intellectual movement of which he described as 

 marked by two characteristics, &quot; nonsense and philoso 

 phy;&quot; nor was it easy to discover which of these two 

 influences, in their reference to matters ecclesiastical, 

 were most evil in his sight. After a long dissertation in 

 this strain, he called up to him a number of intelligent 

 looking young girls to be catechized, and I never saw 

 a set of children with more agreeable or animated 

 countenances, or who displayed more of that modest 

 reverence and entire unreflecting trust in their teacher, 

 which it is so pleasing to see in young pupils. That 

 some of the questions should have reference to the 

 doctrines just laid down in the preceding discourse, 

 was to be expected. One of the last of the interroga 

 tories, &quot;Who wrote the Prayer-book?&quot; puzzled the 

 whole class. After waiting in vain for an answer, the 

 minister exclaimed, &quot;Your mother;&quot; and made a short 

 pause, during which I saw the girls exchange quick 

 glances, and I found time to imagine that each might 

 be exclaiming mentally to herself, &quot;Can he mean my 

 mother?&quot; when he added, in a solemn and emphatic 

 tone, &quot; Your mother, the Church !&quot; Had this congre 

 gation belonged to any other than the Anglican Church, 



