tant parts of the earth, free from our hampering traditions, have caught its diffusive beams, and to a greater extent than we are already walking in its light. Steadily and surely it advances to the conquest of the world, and the mighty strides it has recently made seem to indicate that the triumph is near at hand. All modern legislation, yea all modern thought, tend in the direction in which Williams first led the way. Mighty changes are on the eve of transpiring. Cheering portents are abroad. We feel the precursory vibrations of that mighty but quiet revolution which is to introduce the new order of things. Prophets who have long observed the signs, to whom we cry, "Watchman, what of the night?" tell us that, though the struggle between light. and darkness, between religious freedom and religious tyranny, is not yet past, the final triumph is sure and cannot be long delayed. Yonder are the pale gleams which herald the dawn. Nay, they have already blushed into the rosy streaks of morning. A little while, and our eyes shall greet the day. The fierce hag of persecution, with her withered countenance and fiery eyes, is skulking away with the fleeing shadows. The spell of superstition, which pressed like a nightmare on the hearts of men, is breaking as the strong sleepers stir themselves in their slumbers. Popery, though making frantic efforts to retain its hold upon the nations, feels them slipping the while from her nerveless grasp; snubbed in one direction, repelled in another, crippled in a third, its last stronghold in Europe gone, the days of that hoary despotism are numbered. The working of free religious thought, the desire for self-government in the Church, the awakening in her of a sense of her dignity, will lead her to free herself from the trammels of political alliances, to shake herself from the dust of degradation in which they have caused her to crawl, to loose herself from

the bands which they have laid upon her neck, and to stand forth free from their thraldom and pure from their contamination as becometh Christ's own bride. And all the customs which have been foisted into her by external authority, and for which there is no ground in New Testament teaching, will be flung into the limbo of forgotten vanities, and of gods that have been cast away. How different her aspect then from what it was when she leaned on an arm of flesh, and bartered for its help her liberties and rights! No more shall she cling to those instruments of persecution which have elicited the reproach of the ungodly. No more the thumbscrew, or the rack, or the scaffold, or the stake, or the sentence of banishment, or the prison cell. No more, where the light shines in its fulness, the favoured religionist forcibly extracting from the pockets of another the means of supporting his worship and his creed. No more the magistrate's sword enforcing that religion which claims to be enthroned in the judgments and the hearts and the consciences of men. Even religious bickerings and animosities shall largely cease when political equality has toned down arrogance, and removed the burning sense of wrong; and halcyon days of peace shall settle down on the sorely distracted lands. It is no dream. It comes. It is not far distant. Soon, soon it will be here. It requires no prophet, nor the son of a prophet, to discern its near approach.

"I feel the soul in me draw near
The mount of prophesying;

In this bleak wilderness I hear
A John the Baptist crying;

In the far east I see upleap

The streaks of first forewarning,

And they who sowed the light shall reap
The golden sheaves of morning."

HE appearance of John Milton's name in our list of Baptist Worthies will probably give rise to the old question, "Is Saul also among the prophets?" Among the readers of his poetry there are few who have any conception of the views he held on the great principles which distinguish us from other bodies of professing Christians; and not a little surprise may be felt at our placing him among those narrow sectaries whose stubborn conscientiousness is indeed acknowledged, but generally at the expense

of their mental culture, and breadth, if not loftiness, of view. Our first duty, therefore, is to mention our reasons for placing his name on our list.

Without quoting at length, we may refer the reader to his Treatise on Christian Doctrine, in which all doubt on the matter is removed by Milton's own words. It is not affirmed that he was ever a member of a Baptist Church. The fact of his name not appearing in any Church Roll is to us a pretty conclusive evidence that he was not. If he had been a member, his posthumous fame would have made any church careful that such a fact should not be forgotten. But not the less are we convinced that his views, legitimately carried out, would have issued in his joining such a church had there been such a church willing to receive him. His non-membership, however, is sufficiently accounted for by the fact of his theological divergence from the churches of the time. For although, on fundamental questions, his principles were, in the main, what are now termed evangelical, he was too much inclined to Arminianism for the stiff Calvinism which then prevailed. And on the relation between the Father and the Son-the first and second Persons in the Divine Trinity-indulging in speculation where all speculation is at fault, he favoured opinions that were not strictly orthodox. On these grounds, we can very well understand how, with the importance then attached to strict uniformity of creed among Church-members, he may have thought it useless to seek, or have sought in vain, admission to any existing church.

His own words, however, in the Treatise referred to, settle all dispute as to the principles he held. While he was at one with Baptists on the points on which they agree with other non-conforming bodies-such as the sole and sufficient authority of Scripture in all matters pertaining to

religious belief and practice; the constitution and officers of a Christian Church; its power to regulate its own affairs without the intervention of any man or body of men; its consequent independence of the civil magistrate in everything relating to its own internal management, and its duty to support its own ordinances and institutions without drawing on the funds of the State,- -on the points on which we differ from other non-conforming bodies he has also spoken, with a clearness and force not easily surpassed, and thereby has placed himself unquestionably on our side.

Of Baptism he writes: "Under the Gospel, the first of the sacraments, commonly so called, is BAPTISM, WHEREIN THE

BODIES OF BELIEVERS WHO ENGAGE THEMSELVES TO PURENESS OF LIFE ARE IMMERSED IN RUNNING WATER, TO SIGNIFY THEIR REGENERATION BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND THEIR UNION WITH CHRIST IN HIS DEATH, BURIAL, AND RESURRECTION. With the exception of the one word "running," as denoting a quality in the water that does not appear to be required, at least by some of the immersions recorded in Scripture, these words are exactly those which represent the views now held by the Baptist denomination. And in favour of the position here taken as regards subject and mode, he argues at considerable length. This settles all question as to his being a Baptist in sentiment, and justifies us in claiming the weight of his name, great as it is, in favour of the principles and the practice by which we are distinguished from all other sections of the Church of Christ.

As Baptists, we may well be proud of having such a name identified with our principles. Grander there is none in the illustrious roll of English history. Take him all in all, morally as well as mentally, he is, perhaps, the greatest man which our country has produced. In particular directions he has had superiors, some surpassing him in one thing and