The Universalist. [volume], July 31, 1897, Image 1

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VOL. ?siIV' { vosiPsikssxTBE ?Xf'siss'. ( CHICAGO AND CINCINNATI, SATUR DAY, JULY 31, 1897 . {THE "" COVENANT-} NO ?,1
VOL. L. No. 31.
,_l
The Titsiniversalist
a religious *nd Family weekly
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CONTENTS.
CHICAGO. SATURDAY, JULY 31. 1897.
Page One.
Editorial Briefs.
The Secret of Mr. Moody’s Power.
Some Features of English Fietion.
The Penny Saving System of Chicago.
Universalist Thought.
Page Two.
Sermon—The Rich and the Poor.
How I Became a Universalist.
New Books.
Page Three.
The Sunday School Lesson.
Page Four.
Editorial:
Recuperative Power Endures.
Religion at Home. Read!
Honors Worthily Bestowed.
Signs of Better Times.
W. C. A. Notes for July.
Universalist Personal.
The Religious Press.
Page Five(
Church News and Correspondence.
Death of E. L. Ford.
Page Six,
The Family Page, Farm. Garden and Dairy.
Page Seven.
Our Boys and Girls.
Page Eight.
Church Notices and In Memoriam.
EDITORIAL BRIEFS.
BY PRESIDENT T. M. ATWOOD, D. D.
Thf, discovery in Egypt of •» document
containing the Greek text of eight
logia, or sayings of Jesus, not found in
the gospels, ha9, of course, excited keen
interest among New Testament scholars.
The two great religious papers of New
York, the Sun and the Journal, have had
the Greek text and Prof. J. Rendel Har
ris’s translation cabled to this country.
Only seven of the eight are decipher
able. Four of these are parallel in sen
timent with sayings of Jesus recorded
in the gospels. The remaining three are,
on the surface, of different import from
anything hitherto attributed to our
Lord. The inference is that they are
either inventions or distortions; but
Prof. B. W. Bacon, of Yale, makes in the
Independent, an ingenious and learned
but not wholly convincing plea for their
genuineness. We shall watch the course
of inquiry and discussion as to these
logia with interest.
—John Wanamaker has learned some
things by defeat which escaped him in
success, and is much saner as a critic of
his party’s performances than he was as
its stalwart defender and unstinted
financial supporter. When he reminds
us that the foes America has to fear are
not the Turk, the Spaniard, the Briton,
but "our own patient and heart-tired
people, our own suffering much-prom
ised people, who, betrayed and dis
heartened, no longer have faith in their
party,” he is a true prophet uttering the
Lord’s message to leaders whose ears
appear to be stuffed with sugar. It is
the fashion, to explain Mr Wana
maker's position by saying he has a
grievance. Yes, he has; and it is a real
grievance. Some sixty millions of peo
ple are partners with him in his discon
tent.
—The suggestion made by several of
our exchangesof the religious press, that
the great Christian Endeavor Conven
tion reduce its dimensions and increase
its efficiency, is worthy of consideration.
Thirty thousand people traveling across
the continent in special trains, all late
and exposed to great hazard, is a spec
tacular exhibition that might be war
ranted once in live years, in the interest
of religion; but to make it annual is to
destroy its influence as a demonstration
and to run the risk of making it a bur
den. The amount of energy and money
absorbed in getting ready for the
great gathering, going to it, and getting
over it, is so large that it is a reason
able inquiry whether this is the best
use that can be made ot them. A con
vention as an end is not worth the can
dle; it should be an instrument of service
and a spontaneous expression of interest
and life.
—Again it is two very young men—
twenty-one and twenty-two—and again
they are from families of intelligence
and standing, who are concerned in one
ot the most deliberate and brutal rob
beries on record. They meant it should
be murder also, and only failed in that
from lack of experience. These two
youth Belect a man who has served them
as counsel and got them out of difficulty,
and towards whom their natural feel
ing should be one of kindness it not
gratitude; they choose this man because
they know he has money and jewels;
they entice him to their room on a pre
test, and there try to kill and rob him.
The coolness, the infernal wickedness
of the proceeding, when considered in
the light of family antecedents and con
nections, raises the inquiry: How are
well-to-do and intelligent fathers and
mothers bringing up their sons nowa
days, that so many of them become
toughs and highwaymen?
—Mr. Depew reports that English
money is not now buying American se
curities because the opportunities for
investment in Africa outbid the United
States. This is partly true, no doubt,
fortunes having been made in Africa in
recent years. But fortunes have been
lost there also, and the present investors
are largely speculators. The cautious
and conservative Briton seeks, as the
usual thing, safe rather than speculative
and risky ventures. He has lost a good
deal of money, both principal and inter
est, in American "securities;” and the
fear that he might lose on a larger scale
has affected him latterly, as it does all
careful investors. British money does
not all go to Africa by any means; more
comes to America even now than goes
to the dark continent; and much more
will come if we can give reasonable as
surance that it will not be dissipated.
—Ex-Governor Altgeld drew a very
somber picture of the condition of our
affairs in his Fourth of July address in
Brooklyn. In state and nation, in city
and society, we are in a bad way. Mr.
Altgeld gives the specifications, and we
must admit that he is amply supported
by his facts. The criticism to be made
on his presentation is not that he has
invented or distorted the truth of his
tory, so far as his citations go. The
criticism is, that he does not give all
the facts. He makes a collection which
serves well for an indictment; he leaves
out of his summary and out of his calcu
lation many things of different tenor.
His conclusions are not warranted be
cause they are deduced from partial
data. An advocate for the rosy view
of our situation could present a collec
tion of facts, all genuine, from which an
opposite conclusion could be drawn.
But this would be equally unwarranted.
A true picture takes in everything and
reports all in their exact relations. Alt
geld is a scene-painter.
—The colonization scheme of Com
mander Booth-Tucker of the Salvation
Army does not appear to be altogether
impracticable. He proposes to take
hundreds and at length thousands of
those who now in large cities obtain
only a scant subsistence, some of whom
are actually dependent on charity and
some are enforced criminals, to the un
occupied lands of Arizona, Mew Mexico,
Colorado and South Western Kansas,
and make farmers of them. The lands
are to be rendered productive by irriga
tion, as large tracts of them already are.
He prefers to begin in Bmall and severely
practical ways but to persevere until he
has repeated with Salvation Army colo
nists the successful agricultural experi
ment of the Mormans in Utah. There
are several hundred thousand people in
the great cities of the East who would
be immensely better off in the places
and pursuits marked out for them by
Commander Booth-Tucker.
—Most of our parishes treat their
ministers well, and doubtless all meaD
to do so. But there are instances of
thoughtlessness or negligence. The
custom of taking a vacation in summer
is so established among nearly all classes
that provision for it is made early, and
in some cases at the expense of the
church and minister. Some of the
money, at least, that should go into the
church treasury goes into the country
or to the mountains or to the sea side.
The church must wait till the absentees
return. They are pretty sure to return
with empty pockets. The church must
wait till they till again. In such cases
the minister is likely to be left on short
allowance for months, and these the
months when his salary is most indie
pensable to him. Other sources of this
peculiarly exasperating grievance exist;
but this is one of the more recent causes
of both church delinquency and church
deficits. There should be a professor of
applied Christianity in every church.
Canton Theological School.
OUR CONTRIBUTORS.
THE SEOBET OF ME. MOODY’S
POWEB.
• BV JACOB STRAUB, D.D.
The recent visit of the evangelist,
Moody, to Chicago, affords many
topics of valuable reflection for the
religious world. No man in America
is his equal in touching the religious
heart and marshalling the religious
public. Whether they are in agree
ment with him throughout in relig
ious thought or not, they are in invol
untary touch with him on the great
theme of religious awakening which
is bis central purpose, and the resolve
for a renewal of consecration is for
the time irresistable. How enduring
this may be is unnecessary to ask,
especially by such as see the necess
ity of constant renewal of the means
of grace in order to salvation. That
here is an instance where people are
deeply moved and controlled and
raised toward high ideals of life is
theinteresting object lesson forChris
tians and all well-disposed people.
His work is peculiarly characteristic.
Not alone in the vast assembly inter
ior, but in all the long lines approach
ing the entrances, there is an entire
absence of boisterousness or of rude
ness in any form. The influence is
upon the people before they start for
the place.
The demonstration at this visit was,
it may be, more than usual, but that
of twenty years ago, and when the
city was smaller, was quite like it and
sustained over a much longer time.
And at this time it increased with
each day to the last. At no time d d
the great auditorium supply room for
one half who sought admission. It
was not unusual to see an hour or
more in advance of thetime the street
before the entrance crowded from
sidewalk to sidewalk the whole length
of the square, aside from the tiles
three and four deep, extending more
than a square in either direction. I
was assured by a sergeant of police
that there were from three to four
times as many crowding for entrance
as the building could possibly hold,
while on the inside it was packed in
every department. And this without
banners and bands or marshalls. It
could scarcely be imagined that so
vast an assembly could be character
ized by such perfect decorum. All
the ensignia that denoted them were
hyranbooks and Bibles.
The general appearance was that
of people of sterling worth in every
respect, with a very high average
when compared with other assem
blies. People mainly from the sub
stantial, cultured, Christian homes of
Chicago and vicinity constituted this
attendance. On the platform were
the learned representatives of the
Chicago pulpit. It was not an ag
gregation of fanatics and sentiment
alists, but from quite the contrary
class.
What then could be the secret of
such a wonderful result? Mr. Moody
referring to it said ♦here was no se
cret about it. It was simply the power
of the same old gospel from an open
Bible, averring that there was no
drawing power equal to it, and that
while another was preaching on
science or any secular topic, and he
from the Bible, the people would be
with him because the Gospel had the
greater attraction. It was the thing
of transcendant interest to all people,
and ministers leaving it to preach
something else, usually ended their
days outside of the pulpit.
Other reasons are alleged. That
Mr. Moody has great magnetic pow
ers, is a great organizer, and brings
all the churches to enter the work
with him, is very earnest and con
scientious, and of spotless character,
in whom people have unbounded
confidence, and that he is untiring
and indefatigable in his purpose.
All these are, to a large extent, true,
and there is force in the general al
legation. But is it not more likely
that his own view of it has the most
truth, and that there is no power on
earth, no theatre nor political con
vention, nothing that can draw the
people and hold them as the plain
gospel out of an unchallenged Bible,
is capable of doing. Not any troupe
of dramatic stars in Christendcm, let
their performances be as free and
accessible, could draw and hold the
people as Spurgeon, of London,
Beecher, of Brooklyn, or Chapin, of
New York, drew and held for twenty
five years respectively, or for a single
occasion as Moody has.
The one supreme master of the
human heart is the Gospel of the
Saviour, Jesus Christ. It reveals the
bond of the heart of God with the
heart of man in plain view, with its
nourishing truths. It point out the
way of sin and human discord and
quickens faith and hope, and makes
final despair impossible.
Though Spurgeon’s view of the
Gospel did injustice in some respects,
particularly as pertaining to the des
tiny of man, & defect which largely
passed away in later years, with faith
unmistakable in the book as the
special word of God, and a devotion to
it complete and absolute, and with a
high order of judgment and skill, he
became the always attractive man of
God before the people; and to hear
him and come into his atmosphere
was new every morning and fresh
every evening to ever increasing mul
titudes.
In such instances of what is called
great personal power, it is, however,
not so much the man after all as
what is beyond the man—that which
he makes visible—that is the over
powering attraction. It is not so
much the great telescope as that
which lies beyond that brings the
people to the observatory. While
that which makes visible is unavoid
ably in itself an attraction of un
usual power, and its merits are dis
tinguishing, the all-absorbing inter
est in what it opens to view is what
constitutes the principal occasion of
the massing before it.
It is the qualification, by gift and
study and discipline to gather from
the sacred pages and arrange the great
side lights, turning them on and re
vealing the face of the world’s only
Redeemer, that gives the preacher
the power with the people. Therein
much more than in any other consid
eration lays the great evangelist’s
power. He stands out with his well
worn Bible open in his hand or con
veniently lying on the desk, and with
consummate tact and ability mar
shalls its observations, incidents, and
illustrations to what he wishes to en
force.
There he stands, the great Gospel
commoner, with no smack of college
upon him, of which he gives frequent
proof, as familiar as with his finger’s
ends with every fact and turn of the
book, and draws there from by a sort
of spontaneity what is to tis pur
pose, combines and delivers it upon
his audience with matchless force.
The effect upon the whole mass at
once is electrical. The well delivered
shot found the common heart, and
believer and unbeliever alike evince
the telling stroke. These Bible ap
peals are unparallelled, and because
they are Bible. Illustrations from
any other source are chaff and not
in comparison. Nobody ever arose
for prayers or was moved out of his
spiritual inertia by any thing that
Emerson, Tennyson, or any of the
similar literary eminences ever said
or did. These minister delightfully
to the church in quest of “litera
ture,” and to aesthetic residents of
somnolent couches.
But few whose regular diet has
been Emerson in place of Jesus
and Paul are out sacrificing their
ease, foregoing pleasures, drudging
and wearing away their lives to bring
the Gospel abroad the pale
of civilized life or doing like work for
the unaffiliated classes at home.
And in any meeting whose purpose
is to move the people to Gospel work
the name Emerson, like that of any
mere philosopher of whatever merit,
is unbefiting and inimical. It serves
to divert and retard rather than to
warm and inspire. He honorably be
fits his place as a magnate in specu
lative philosophy. Himself classed
himself no higher, and would have
been among the first to resist the
canonization sought to be forced
upon him.
There is but one name capable of
arousing the common religious
heart and to procure the following of
the multitude. And whoever essays
by any other must be content with
small results or failure, and failure
in the end.
Mr. Moody, whatever his errors, has
made no mistake here.
And in this is the lesson of this
great evangelist open to all, and is
one which every one having ministe
rial work in hand should study
faithfully and lay to his heart. A
Universalist as well as many another
would find views inculcated by Mr.
Moody not in harmony with his own.
But these, however serious, would
not be in conflict with, or render in
consistent, the theory that the work,
preaching and all, must be done by
appealing to Jesus of Nazareth, and
‘ In his Name.”
Dauphin Park, 111.
Why I Am a Universalist.
Christianity is the religion taught by
Jesus. Undoubtedly we are Christians
because we were born in a Christian
land; and so, many of us are Univereal
ists because we were born into that
faith. But there is that other reason—
we believe that of all other Christian
sects, Universaliem is the one which
most truly comprehends Jesus’ teach
ings.
“We believe that there is a Cod who
is infinite in power, wisdom, justice and
love: that he is the Father of all men,
and since he desires that his children
shall overcome evil and become perfect,
he will aid them by his wisdom, love and
truth, to this object.”
We believe that there is one God, and
that Jesus was his child, as we are the
children of God’s divine nature; for
Jesus repeatedly declared his depend
ence on the Father as the source of bis
inspiration and the object of his wor
ship. Our belief concerning Jesus is
based upon the Scriptures, which we
hold, “contain a revelation of the char
acter of God, and of the duty, interest
and final destination of mankind.”—
Anna J. Schlund, Oak Park, III.
—Notice the advertisement of “Pecu
liar People" on the fifth page this
week.
SOME FEAT1JBE8 OF ENGLISH FIC
TION,
BY HATTIE TYNG GRISWOLD.
The extreme popularity of Rud
yard Kipling, of Ian MacLaren and
Barrie, is partlydue, no doubt, to the
intense weariness of the whole read
ing world of the usual type of English
fiction. The stock company of the
novel—the old lord, the heir, the vic
ar, the curate, the old servants, the
family lawyer, the old dowagers and
the feeble minded young ladies have
become nauseous, and almost any
change of diet would have been wel
come. Thecoarseness and rowdyism
of Kipling had a new flavor, though
rather overdone for refined tastes. To
be sure he swears scarcely more than
Thackeray, yet with a difference. For
low life he has no more taste, perhaps,
than Dickens, nor does he talk great
ly more about hard drinking and
long carousols.
This latter trait is the common
property, however,of almost all Eng
lish fiction. Sir Walter Besant not
only makes the heroine of All Sorts
and Conditions of Men, the daughter
and proprietor of a brewery, but he
advertises the beer throughout the
book, and makes the philanthropists,
who are working for .the poor, hold
up as an ideal the time when all can
have good beer and plenty of it. He
places it in the same category as
bread. Dickens hits the teetotalers
hard raps many limes also, and some
of his pages fairly reek with drink,
and many more with smoke. Thack
eray is not far behind. The wine
drenches his pages, and you can
scarcely see for the smoke. Who
does not remember Clive Newcomb
and his “eternal cigar?” And War
rington, the best beloved, is hardly
mentioned but what his pipe is in
evidence. Pendennis is a good third;
in fact, all of his favorite heroes emit
an odor of tobacco.
Until latterly this has not been the
case with the best American fiction.
Although J ulian Hawthorne says that
his father “was not a teetotaler any
more than he was an abolitionist ora
thug,” he had a refinement which
kept his pages clean and sweet. Of
course mention is made both of wine
and smoke, but his writings are not
saturated with either.
Nor have any of our better writers,
until recently, become infected with
this virus. Howells has fallen into
it somewhat of late, as have Richard
Harding Davis, and our Canadian
friend, Gilbert Parker. There is less
excuse for recent writers in doing
this than for the older ones like Dick
ens and Thackeray.
English life, until the present time,
has hardly known a protest against
the universal habit of drink, and a
truthful picture of their time could
hardly have been drawn by novelists,
without frequent allusion to the uni
versal custom.
But it is a poor time now, when the
protest is almost universal, for our
writers to ape the custom of their el
ders and betters. Nevertheless, the
hero of Gilbert Parker’s late novel
The Last of the Lavillettes.does little
but cough and pour whisky down
his throat. This for so good a writer
as Parker is a pity, and the story is a
dramatic one, spite of this blemish.
It is about time, too, that we de
mand of writers of English fiction
that they free their pages from the
too frequent description of the other
vices of their heroes. Scarcely one of
the old lords before mentioned, but
is described as a rake in his youth,
and many as not having fully recov
ered in age. Lord Steyne is a prodi
gious favorite with Thackeray, and
there are many others who are no
better than they should be. The
young men, too, sow marvellous quan
tities of wild oats. Even so fine a
fellow a9 Lord Kew, in The New
combs, is described as beiug a very
prodigal son, and the Marquis of
Farintosh is a rake of rakes, to say
nothing of that delightful English
gentleman, Barnes Newcomb. Even
George Eliot must give us Grand
court. But why particularize? Any
reader of novels knows the type.
These men are the stock in trade of
most of the lesser writers, from Ouida
down. The worn out rowe, the re
formed rake, the young man in the
midst of his amours, are they not fed
to us all ad nauseurn. Is it any
wonder that our young men are cyni
cal and blase, and that women are
beginning to wonder if there be any
virtue among men? These constant
matter-of-course descriptions of the
lives of men everywhere, given us by
great, as well as small writers, what
do they betoken?
I am far frotn saying that the story
of a great passion, of a sin of an ex
piation should never be told. Better
than sermons are such tales as Adam
Bede, The Scarlet Letter, David
Grieve and Anna Karenina.
But Bhall we never be rid of this
universal atmosphere of vice, this as
sumption that wild oats are univer
sally sown,and eyen that they must be
thus sown. That it should be a mat
ter-of course in literature is what I
deplore. It is not that in real life; it
should not be thus depicted in fiction.
There are books enough of this kind
already in the world. Can we not de
mand of our writers that the trib
shall not increase?
COLUMIIUS. Wis.
THE PENNY SAVING SYSTEM OF
CHICAGO.
Committee,
(Civic Federation, i
Rev. ft. A. White, Chairman.
E. G. Keith, Franklin McVeagh,
Wm. T. Baker, Howard H. Gross.
Sometime ago, Rev. R. A. White, pas
tor of Stewart Avenue Universalist
Church, who had been interested in a
similar society in the East, explained
the Penny Savings System to the Ex
ecutive Committee of the Civic Federa
tion at its request and the plan met with
unanimous approval. The committee
named above was at once appointed to
take the matter in hand, looking toward
the establishment of a similar system
for Chicago. The Civic Federation had
juBt put the Bureau of Charities on its
feet and it seemed proper that it should
inaugurate and foster this system of
small savings which goes to the root of
the whole matter of much of civic pov
erty and distress. All who work among
the poor soon discover that one reason
of their poverty is the lack of habits of
saving when they have an income.
This system aims to reach that class of
people primarily, though it is equally
valuable for children in any circum
stances in life with whom it is desirable
to foster habits of thrift and economy.
The average person, who has only
small sums to save, can usually find no
bank which takes sums less than one or
two dollars and even these are usually
so far removed from him that he is never
tempted to use them.
The Committee of the Penny Savings
System aims to act as an agent between
the small saver and some reputable rav
ings bank. The system, in brief, is as
ollows:
There is a een*ral .office at Pear,
born street, Chicago, rooms of Civic
Federation, where are to be obtained
stamps, stamp cards, etc. There are
branch stations established wherever a
responsible person thinks he can induce
a cumber of persons to save, as in boys’
or girls’ clubs, large shops, factories,
etc. The local agent, as the promoter of
such a local station is called, obtains
from the central office as many stamp
cards bb he thinks he is likely to have
depositors, and buys there stamps of
different denominations. To each per
son wishing to become a depositor the
local agent gives a card, and sells stamps
to the amount of the deposit. These
stamps must be pasted on the card.
When the local agent has sold all his
stamps, he has been reimbursed the
amount he originally paid in at the cen
tral office, and with this money may buy
more. A branch station mav be run in
definitely on an original advance of
from $5 to §25.
The system recommends itself for its
simplicity, the entire book-keeping be
ing done in one office, while the branches
may sell to thousands of depositors
whom the central office alone could
never reach. It recommeds itself as an
attractive form of Baving and as reach
ing a large number of persons whose
pennies have gone before they reach the
sum which it seemB to them worth
while to deposit in a savings bank. It
encourages thrift and industry. The
society itself can afford to pay no inter
est, since the expense of printing, stamps,
cards and circulars, with other inciden
tal expenses, will exceed the interest ac
cruing on such deposits as the.society
may be able to make in the bank. But
it is an essential part of the scheme
that depositors should be urged to open
an account with some first class savingB
bank as soon as their savings amount
to $3 or more, where interest will be
paid them. It is hoped that those who
are employers of labor, or who meet
those who have not yet formed the habit
of saving, will establish branches and
help an enterprise which is sure to be
come a factor in the encouragement of
thrift and self-respect.
The system is carefully guarded
against anv possible fraud, or loss to
depositors. The small depositor at the
local station is insured against loss since
the local agent has already made a de
posit at the central office to the extent
of the number of stamps he has for
Bale, and, in case of the dissolution of a
local station, the unredeemed stamps of
that station are redeemable at the cen
tral office. The local agent is assured
against any loss, for his unsold and can
celled stamps, in case he wishes to dis
continue his office, will be redeemed at
the central office. The system is a
modification of the Postal Savings
Banks, of Europe, and has been in ex
istence in this country some eleven or
twelve years. It has proven a success
in Boston, New York and some sixty
other cities and towns in the United
States and in every case has proven a
potent factor in the solution of the so
cial problems of poverty and thriftleee
ness.
For further particulars communicate
with Rev. R. A. White, Station O, Chi
cago, or apply to the cashier, Harriet M.
Van DerVeat, at the central office, 104
Dearborn street, Room 215.
Universalist Thought
OUR OWN WRITERS, j.
The Greatest Service to the Young
Suppose you are anxious to do the
greatest possible service to seme young
man or xoman. What will you give
them? Money? . ItJ'may easily prove a
curse to them. Amusement or travel?
But, unless they have acquired Eome
self-knowledge and self-mastery to be
gin with, they cr.nnot make these re
dound to any great personal profit, Give
them, if possible, what will make them
stronger and richer in themselves. Give
them aD i nsight into life.' Give them an
education. Urge it upon them. Prove
to them its value. Help them acquire
it.—Hen. Dr. Nash.
The Difficulties of Creed-Making.
There are some of us who have been
rather conservative on the question of
the revi sion of the creed. We have not
believed that the greatest achievement
possible to the Universaliet Church in
the nineteenth century is the making of
two c reeds, one at either end of it. We
have not been indifferent to the charac
ter of the profession which is supposed
to represent us, but we have had a lively
sense of the difficulties in the way of a
successful revision. It is sometimes
better to bear the ills we have than fly
to others we can confidently predict.
Criticism of a creed is easy, and hyper
criticism is easier still, but the con
struction of a creed which will bear
criticism, or be accepted by our church,
is not easy. That fact has been discov
ered.— Rev. Dwight M. Hodge.
Studies out of Place.
A religious teacher, not a thousand
miles distant, is instructing his peop'e
in the higher ways of life and the mys
teries of human conduct by a weekly
lecture or two, which takes the place of
sermons and Sunday-school lessons, hiB
theme usually pertains to American ex
plorations and discovery, or something
along that line. Surely this is unique.
Some of these old Spanish adventurers
were rare men who did untold wonders
for the elevation of morals and spiritual
in mankind. Pizzaro, Cortez and their
ilk were fine cut throats, and will greatly
benefit little chi'rWn and tender the
hard hearts of the old if their exploits
are paraded regularly upon the Sabbath
to the edification of a long suffering pub
lic, which has been bored for untold
generations by the story of the gospel
and the fine spiritual life of the Chris
tian teachings. □ Who wiil be next ? A1
hail to^this new prophet!—Rev. F. F.
Buckner.
The Vacation Argument.
Vacation, to the average American, is
as much a necessity as it is a pastime.
Cold stimulates, and so autumn, winter
and springtime hold us to our tasks.
Competition enters everywhere. Life is
a continual grind. We are in the strife
and din of a work a-day world. We
shoulder great burdens and accomplish
great things. But when, with heat and
glare of summer’s Bun, we join the exo
dus, activities and perplexities alike are
dropped and body and brain recuperate.
Thus the strain of severe exertion is for
a time relaxed and our lives are thereby
prolonged.
Nor is the period of relaxation alto
gether one of idleness. The mountain
eer, having scaled the heights, pauses
upon their summit not merely to rest,
but most of all, to admire the view and
study the landscape. So the busy man
or woman—it may be the pastor or Sun
day-school superintendent — stops not
only to catch breath and gain strength
to go on again, but also to review the
work that now is finished and to plan
for what is to come, and when the
church resumes its labor its usefulness
will broaden and its spirituality deepen
according as the intermission is used or
abused by its membership.—Rev. B. B.
Gibbs.
“As Ye Go, Preach.”
"As ye go” was the command, “preach,
saying, the kingdom of heaven is at
hand.” They were not the messengers
of threatening, but the heralds of good
tidings. They were not bearing the
dreadful summons of a stern ruler, but
the loving invitation of a father. Their*
not to insist upon the dogmatic state
ment of a formal creed, but to publisL a
great truth and impart a new and di- .
viner life. But their message was defi
nite and their truth positive. They de
nied by affirmation and they met old
error with new truth. The thing which
men most profoundly need and demand
at the hands of their successors, is the
broadest and the most positive affirma
tions of truth. If any man thinks that
the gospel can be preached without af
firmation, that there can be any procla
mation of truth without the utterance
of conviction, he is looking for language
without its signs of speech, and thought
without expression.
It is a simple gospel. It is all har
mony in the key of love. That is the
master word—that the key to it all. All
theology is summed up in the words
"God is Love.” All ethics in the sen
tence "Love is the fulfilling of the law.”
All hope and faith in human destiny is
assured in the truth, “Love never fail
etb.” That is the gospel as we know_
Rev. J. Coleman Adams, D D.