A Layman's Faith, Doctrines, and Liturgy. (Triilmor.) — " A Layman" seeks
to rearrange the faith and practice of Christendom after a fashion which he believes to be in better harmony with the original order of things than any Church has yet boon able to achieve. His proposals are, as might be supposed, of a simplifying kind. He gives us a new Decalogne, or rather Octologue, which omits the Second, Third, and Fourth Commandments. His creed is of the briefest, containing but three propositions about the Divine Persons; but it is supplemented by various articles of belief which amount very nearly to what is held by the orthodox Dissenters. Nor is there anything very new in his scheme of Church discipline. "Ministers," he says, "are laymen devoting their whole time to the civil and religious duties of their office." The theory of all who do not believe in an Apostolical succession comes to much the same thing. We may suggest to the writer that he would be more likely to gain a respectful attention to his proposals, if he did not make such a mistake as to say that printing was invented in the .fourteenth century. The world has prejudices on the subject which a ,gentleman who intends to reform Christianity would do well to respect'
Previous page
