surely be greatly weakened. But we feel inclined to insist that, as a rule, there is gracious divine provision made for its removal, and that this may be savingly grasped and held. Of course we will still be sick, and still die, for all human experience shows that this part of the penalty of sin is not yet subject to removal. The provision for its destruction is not yet perfectly operative, nor will it be until the resurrection of the last day, which is the time appointed for disease and death to be entirely swallowed up in life. But for the removal of fleshly lusts and evil appetites the complete remedy is now perfectly available, and that remedy is the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let the transgressor but look to it in faith, and we believe that as the bodies of the serpent-bitten Israelites were healed when they looked upon the uplifted image in the wilderness, so will the body of the sinner be cured of those evil appetites which are the result of his own misdeeds, or which, perhaps, have become his by inheritance.

There is also in this matter that which is of importance to Christians. Supposing that their bodies have been quickened, and that unholy lusts have been eradicated or repressed, then their members are to be held inviolably sacred to God, being yielded servants to righteousness. A Christian's soul is already, by anticipation, a celestial spirit, a citizen of heaven, for into that goodly fellowship it was introduced by the consecrating baptism of the Holy Ghost. His body is already, by anticipation, a spiritual body, one of the bodies of heaven, for into the regenerated nature which will compose the new heavens and the new earth it has been introduced by the consecrating baptism of water. Even now, with the whole creation, it groaningly awaits the full manifestation of the sons of God and the regeneration of all things. God's seal is upon the Christian's body, and it is to be held sacred. Let him beware of evil; although saved, he is not beyond temptation and falling, for even though his bodily and spiritual state were by a miracle of divine recreative energy made equal in perfection to that of unfallen Adam, he would not be beyond the possibility of lapse. By gratifying an innocent appetite with an unlawful object, our first parent fell into transgression, and in the same way have since fallen thousands once regenerate.

Finally, from this subject we gain some dim idea of part of

our perfection in heaven. To repeat some of the thoughts with which we began, we have seen that, in conversion, God "quickens" "our mortal bodies." After the quickening a long process ensues, which may be compared to gestation. Then our physical nature passes through the grave, doubtless a necessary stage in the preparation of the spiritual body. Somewhere and somehow, by this time, the physical nature has been freed from its carnality, inherited or acquired, so that now the purified physical nature is ready to be raised up. For, as Christlieb says: "We must not forget that it is not earthly matter, per se, which is incapable of being developed into a spiritual state of existence, but only the defilement that cleaves to it in our fallen condition that prevents this. The terrestrial body, as such, is destined to be spiritualized; but if this is its destiny it must also possess the capability. This shows us at the same time the reason why the sinless body of Christ could be immediately transmuted. Its purity was the possibility of its transformation." Now, our own bodily purification being accomplished by the processes of grace and the grave, the birth-hour of the resurrection comes. The Spirit who raised up Christ, and who quickened aforetime our mortal bodies, now raises us up. The soul, already prepared in the intermediate state, next comes and takes possession of the prepared and perfect organ of its future activities. Then for the first time is realized the ancient philosophic dream of a sound mind in a sound body, though in a higher sense than was ever imagined. Then all the diseases and weaknesses that were the result of either our natural limitations or of the actual sins of the flesh are gone, because our physical man is wholly regenerated. The soul perfectly helps the body, and the body the soul, the old antagonism between the two having utterly vanished. This is part of the glorification of man in heaven, to which all Christians are now upon the way. Immortality already stirs within their ransomed spirits, and in their very bodies they feel the growing powers of the world to come.

* "Modern Doubt and Christian Belief," p. 476.

ART. IV.-WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey. By ARTHUR PENRHYN Stanley, D.D., Dean of Westminster. Third and Revised Edition. London: John Murray. 1869. 8vo, pp. 704.

THE fame of Westminster Abbey is world-wide. It stands, the index of Anglo-Saxon greatness, the monument of England's unquestioned stability. It is the historian of eight long centuries of British progress. It is a vast pile of Gothic architecture worth going many miles to see, ornamented without and within with all that the hand of skillful artisan and the purse of royalty itself could supply. It is earth's richest mausoleum, where scores, especially of those who were kings in the world of Mind, whose fame is more secure with every passing year, have been laid to rest. It has witnessed royal marriages, coronations, and burials, and is thus peculiarly endeared to Britain's sons. It challenges the admiration of hosts of others as well, visitors from afar, who have traversed again and again its long halls and walked reverently through its royal chapels.

The Abbey of Westminster hath been always held the greatest sanctuary and randevouze of devotion of the whole island; whereunto the situation of the very place seems to contribute much and to strike a holy kind of reverence and sweetness of melting piety in the hearts of the beholders.*

The famous church has been eagerly sought out by visitors from every clime. Already in the reign of Elizabeth distinguished foreigners were taken in gondolas "to the beautiful and large royal church called Westminster." It is at least possible (the choice lies between Westminster, St. Paul's, or King's College, Cambridge) that it was in Westminster the youthful Milton

"Let his dere feet never fail

To walk the studious cloister pale,
And love the high embowered roof
With antick pillars massy proof,
And storied windows richly dight
Casting a dim, religious light."

Burke "visited the Abbey soon after his arrival in town," and the moment he entered he felt a kind of awe pervade his mind which he could not describe; "the very silence seemed

*Howell's "Perlustration of London," p. 346. 1657.

sacred." Horace Walpole loved Westminster Abbey "much more than levees and circles." Washington Irving was a close observer of its wonderful attractiveness.

The carefully prepared volume before us, dedicated to her Majesty Queen Victoria, "A humble record of the royal and national sanctuary which has for centuries enshrined the varied memories of her august ancestors, and the manifold glories of her free and famous kingdom, and which witnessed the solemn consecration of her own auspicious reign to all high and holy purposes," is doubly interesting on account of the large-heartedness of its illustrious author, who, so short a time ago, was laid to rest within the quiet walls of the Abbey he loved and served so well. We stood but yesterday by this newest grave of all, covered with wreaths of immortelles, the gifts of loving hearts, and thanked God again for the beautiful life of the great Dean Stanley. Were there no other, the volume before us would be a worthy monument of his highly cultured mind and his noble heart.

On the occasion of the eight hundredth anniversary of the dedication of the Abbey, in December, 1865, the friends of Dean Stanley, especially his associates at Westminster, expressed the desire that he would illustrate its history by Memorials similar to those he had previously published in connection with Canterbury Cathedral. The desire was complied with, and the result is the volume whose title-page we have quoted, and which must possess a lasting interest, not only to the historian and the ecclesiastical scholar, but to the archæological student and to the great world of English people every-where. Much had already been written on the Abbey, but none of the writers, it is safe to say, had enjoyed such rare facilities as did Dean Stanley for consulting original sources of information such as the Archives preserved in the Abbey, reaching back to the charters of the Saxon kings, the Chapter Books, extending from 1542 to the present, the Burial Registers, from 1606 to the present, and various other important MSS. The rare opportunity was appreciated and well improved.

As will be understood at once by those most familiar with the history of Westminster Abbey, the compiling such Memorials was no easy task; the very multitude of historical events with which the famous edifice has been connected in

creased the difficulty; but out of the diversified materials before him with manifest painstaking our author educed a volume which must long remain an unquestioned authority, and commend itself to all who would know the Abbey. The opening chapter treats of the Foundation of the Abbey; the second describes the Coronations, from that of William the Conqueror, December 25, 1066, to that of Queen Victoria, June 28, 1838; the third tells of the Royal Tombs; the fourth describes the Monuments; the fifth the Abbey before the Reformation, (the Monastery, Cloisters, Treasury, Chapter House, Infirmary, etc.;) the sixth chapter gives a history of the Abbey since the Reformation. There are also interesting appendixes, addenda, and a chronological table of events. The pages are filled with helpful references which point the way to additional information. In the interests of those who have not been privileged to visit London a few words of commonplace description may be admissible. Westminster Abbey stands in the western part of London within two hundred yards of the Houses of Parliament on the banks of the heavily burdened Thames, near Westminster Bridge. We are told that

the devout king [Edward the Confessor] destined to God that place both for that it was near unto the famous and wealthy city of London, and also had a pleasant situation amongst fruitful fields lying round about it with the principal river running hard by, bringing in from all parts of the world great variety of wares and merchandise of all sorts to the city adjoining; but chiefly for the love of the chief apostle, whom he reverenced with a special and singular affection.*

The "fruitful fields" have long since given place to blocks of buildings and crowded streets, and the quietude which once so distinguished the place as a worthy site for church and monastery has disappeared; the cab, omnibus, and street-car rattle over the ground where formerly abbots and monks reverently paced, while the rush and roar of the world's great metropoli are heard on every side.

The Abbey church is cruciform. The length of the nave is 166 feet, the breadth 38, the height 101 feet; the breadth of the aisles is 16, the extreme breadth of nave and aisles, 71 feet; the length of the choir is 155, the breadth 38, the height 101 * Harleian MSS., p. 980.