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ESTABLISHED 182 i. v
WChristianlndex
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For the Index.
Review of the Lessons for the First
Quarter, March 29, of 1896.
BY S. G. HILLYER.
In this review I do not propose
to take up the lessons siriatim,
and give a short sketch of each
one. This has been already so
ably done in the Sunday School
Teacher for March that I could do
nothing better on that line than
to quote its “resume.” I propose
rather to notice the leading facts,
given us in the lessons, which
serve to illustrate
THE MAN CHRIST JESUS.
In the first place, his miracu
lous birth, by the direct agency
of the Holy Spirit, reveals him
to us as the Son of God; in a far
more exalted sense, than any
mere human being can ever at
tain to. Then, at his baptism, a
voice from Heaven said: “This
is my beloved Son in whom I am
well pleased.” Thus Jesus stands
before us as the Son of the living
God.
We learn in the next place that
Jt sus himself claimed lobe the
Messiah of God. This was also
signified at his baptism, for we
are told that the Holy Ghost, in
a visible form, descended upon
him as he came up out of the
water. No earthly oil was
poured upon his head by human
hands to consecrate him for his
high mission. Aaron was a type
of Christ, and the literal oil with
which he was set apart to the
work of his earthly priesthood
was only a type of the Holy
Spirit that should in due time
consecrate the Son of God—the
antitype of Aaron —to his ev.er
lasting priesthood. Jesus was,
therefore, the Messiah (the Christ)
of God as truly as he was his
Son.
In the third place we notice
his wonderful works. They
were such works as none but God
could perform; and at the same
time, they were works of mercy
designed to relieve the suffering
and the bereaved, and thus to il
lustrate his power to save.
In the fourth place, the lessons
of the quarter have given us in a
large measure the sublime teach
ings of Jesus. He re we reach an
illustration of the man Christ
Jesus that far transcends in
value his most stupendous mira
cles. A miracle, in its effects, is
often local and temporary. But
the words of Jesus abide forever,
and are of universal application.
When the paralytic lay at Jesus’
feet, the bystanders no doubt re
garded him with intense pity.
When Jesus said to him: “Thy
sins be forgiven thee,” the peo
pie, for a moment, were disposed
to murmer. Then in order to
convince them “that the Son of
Man hath power on earth to for
give sins,” Jesus said to the suf
ferer, “arise and take up thy bed
and go unto thy house,” then the
people were exultant with joy.
At that moment the words spok
en were lightly regarded. The
object of deepest interest just
then was the miracle. But how
is it now ? The miracle is so cov
ered with the mist of centuries,
that it has lost its pathos and its
Sower. But the words, “The
on of Man hath power on earth
to forgive sins !” are as fresh,
and as precious, at the close of
the nineteenth century as they
were on the day they carried
comfort to the soul of the tremb
ling paralytic.
What was true of this one mir
acle was true of them all. Those
who were relieved by them were,
for a time, greatly benefited;
and those who witnessed them
were no doubt deeply impressed
with the reality of a divine
power. But their chief and most
important value was to verify
the truth of a divine revelation.
Those benefited by miracles,
and all who witnessed them, soon
passed away; but the facts re
mained on the face of the records
THE CHRISTIAN INDEX.
to test 6 '’? to future generations
the veracity of the Prophets
when they pre fessed to declare
unto us the word of the Lord.
All this was especially true in
the case of Jesus. He wrought
miracles that the people might
believe his words. He said him
self : “For the words that I
speak unto you, they are spirit
and they are life.”
The lessons of the quarter
which is just closing have given
to us many precious words of
Jesus. Some were promises, de
signed to cheer and to comfort
the despondent; some were warn
ings, designed to arouse the idle
and the thoughtless of impend
ing danger; some were instruc
tive, opening to us a clearer in
sight into the deep things of di
vine truth; and some were pro
phetic, unfolding the things that
were to come topass in the fu
ture, even to the judgment day.
Such were his words. The mir
acles which he wrought may
grow dim with years; but the
words which he spoke have never
lost their power. When wielded
by the Spirit they are “sharper
than a two-eged sword, piercing
to the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit, and of the joints and
marrow.”
Such is the Man Christ Jesus,
as the lessons of the quarter
have revealed him to us in the
divinity of his nature, in the of
ficial mission of his Messiahship,
in the glory of his beneficent
works, and in the wisdom and
power of his words.
As we study the character anl
words of Jesus, we beh rid the
“glory that excelleth.’* Among
all the sons of Adam, he has no
peer. True, he was not sur
rouded with the glamor of
earthly splendor, he led no
mighty armies, nor did he sub
due by war and blood the nations
of the earth. All these elements
of earthly greatness he trampled
under his feet as beneath his no
tice. His aim was higher. He
had come to destroy the works of
the devil. He had come to de
liver men and women from Sa
tan’s galling bondage, and to re
deem them from all iniquity, and
to purify them unto himself as a
people for his own possession,
zealous of good works.
The words of Christ are the
“water” of which one must be
born anew, by the agency of the
Holy Spirit, before he can enter
into the kingdom of God. Then,
the words of Christ supply the
“living water, whereof if a man
drink he shall never thirst, but
it shah be in him, a well of water
springing up into everlasting
life.” And again, the words of
Christ afford that “pure water”
which cleanses the outward life
f every saint.
And last of all, the words of
Christ make up that Heavenly
wrought mirror wherein “we all
beholding, as in a glass, the glory
of God, are changed into the
same image, from glory to glory,
as by the spirit of the Lord. *
* * For God who com-
manded the light to shine out of
darkness, hath shined into our
hearts to give the light of the
knowledge of glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ.” Or may
we not say, that the words of
Jesus form the great camera,
through which, as we look, God
photographs upon the tablets of
our souls his own divine likeness.
73 Washington st., Atlanta.
For the Index.
Baptist Opportunity.
BY GEO. A. LOFTON, D. D.
As some one has suggssted,
an opportunity is God’s occasion
added to man’s ability to accom
plish an end. The ability with
out the occasion, or the occasion
without the ability, would not
make an opportunity ; but when
God offers an occasion in con
junction with our ability, to lose
the opportunity is a crime, both
against God and ourselves.
Shakespeare truly said of such :
“O, Opportunity! Thy guilt Is great I"
It has been asserted that
‘ ‘ there was never but one op
portunity of a kind.” “The
May of life,” wrote Schiller,
“ only blooms once.” If all this
be true, it is not only a startling
fact to our individual apprehen
sion, but to our denominational
complacency.
Since the dawn of civil and
religious liberty, Baptists have
enjoyed the only opportunity of
their history to assert their prin
ciples and peculiarities to take
the world for Christ and the gos
pel. For more than a hundred
years they have enjoyed the
trophy of their fredom, won
chiefly by their own hands and
extended as a priceless heritage
to all other forms pf belief be
neath the sun. Under the elas
tic bound of our principles and
practices, once freed from the
shackles of politico-religious
despotism, Baptists gave birth
to the greatest movement since
the reformation, the enterprise
of foreign missions inaugurated
and established, in the provi-
I SUBSCRIPTION, F1«Y1»1,"..5J.00 I
I TO MINISTERS, 1.00.1
dence of God, under Carey and
Judson. Since that mighty step
in religious progress was taken,
our denomination has marvel
ously developed, especially on
this continent, in benevolence,
education and missionary opera
tions, both at home and abroad.
We have kept pace with other
people in numbers, wealth, in
telligence, social importance and
activity ; and now at the close of
this epitome of all the centuries,
the once despised Baptists, the
sect always and everywhere
spoken against, are well nigh
not despised nor spoken against
any more, if at all.
Whether or not this argues
well for us, 1 am loth to say, but
I am satisfied that there are
breakers ahead of the Baptist
ship, unless we can take our
bearings aid rectify our course
from which, in some respects,
our prosperity seems to be driv
ing us. Other denominations
who enjoy our freedom and have
followed our example in mis
sions, have seized upon our
great discovery and enterprise,
and are now outstripping us in
liberality and work, and are tak
ing the world from our grasp.
They have gone ahead of us in
multitudes of places. The great
opportunity which Baptists had
thrust upon them to have taken
the world, has, in a large meas
ure, been lost in the nineteenth
century. We have done much,
but we have failed to do our
part, not only in evangelizing
the world,.but in maintaining
the strict integrity which once
characterized us as the keepers
of God’s truth. For these rea
sons I fear that we are losing
God's great opportunity, prof
fered us in these latter days, and
with respect to this apprehen
sion I wish to make a few spe
cific observations.
1. Baptists can never, as such,
live and flourish without doc
trinal orthodoxy. We are the
conservators of primitive Chris
tianity, the most humble, pure,
active, liberal and aggressive in
the first century, according to
means and opportunity. Our
great modern opportunity is
gone the moment we vary from
the “strict construction” and
faithful practice of the New Tes
tament. God may allow other
denominations to flourish in
error, or idleness, but such a
privilege is not accorded to Bap
tists. Our only chart upon the
great deep of our denominational
career is the gospel; our only
captain is Christ; our only pilot
is the Holy Ghost, and our only
hope of success lies in eternal
vigilance and everlasting ag
gression according to the princi
ples and practices of the New
Testament. We are bound
neither by traditions, creeds,
theologies, rituals nor histories,
contrary to God’s word. Our
succession may or may not be.
susceptible of historic proof, but
the rock of prosperity on which
Baptists rest is a “Thu, sajth
the Lord.” Decadence in sound
theology lies back of all cor
ruption in practice; and Baptists
can never live nor flourish long
in the atmosphere of Arminian
ism, Pelagianism or Socinianism
in any form or to any degree.
Baptists are not long for this
world who keep Easter or ape
after Romanism or Episcopacy
in any shape ; and when big
money, broad culture, or social
distinctions take the place of
old-fashioned relie ion in Baptist
churches, then Baptists go to
seed or die of dropsy. Our de
nomination will decline the day
we cease to preach our doctrines
and peculiarities from our pvZ
pits. We cannot depend on
tracts, books and papers for the
purpose.
2. Baptists cannot live and
flourish without spirituality.
Some denominations do so exist
without this vital element of re
ligion ; but Baptists are the
special representatives of the
spiritual, as opposed to the ritu
alistic and the rationalistic idea
in Christianity. Hence we are
bound to die out when we cease
to read God’s word, the only
rule of faith and practice among
Baptists; when we cease to
pray; when we cease to talk,
personally, about our religion;
When we cease to exemplify that
religion before the world. The
decline of piety among the
masses is one of the signs of the
times, and the fact can only be
accounted for upon the absence
of personal and private holiness.
We do much work, give much
money and are vastly organized,
but the Holy Ghost often seenfs
to be left out of it all. Holiness
is the hope of the Baptist de
nomination, as in the long ago,
so in the distant future.
Under this head I wish to say
that the family altar is the bul
wark of the Baptist denomina
tion ; and yet, most likely, there
is not one family in fifty that
knows anything of family re
ligion. Like Israel of old, our
altars have fallen down and
gone to decay ; and oh, for some
ATLANTA, GA., THURSDAY. MARCH 26,1896.
Elijah, on Carmel heights, to
re-establish them in the hearts
of the people! We shall never
bind our children Io our churches
and our principles without the
centralizing antnuef’-ystalizing
forces of familycki ijgion and
training ; and already our child
ren, for the want of this funda
mental culture and de’ otion, are
drifting by hundreds t\o other
denominations. Sunday-
school is no substitute f or the
family altar ; for evepi fr< m the
Sunday-school our children go
whence and where they please,
without the interference of pa
rental influence or protest. Bap
tist children have ceased to sit
in the pew with their parents,
and let me say that in the ab
sence of the family altar, the
oldest form of religion in the
world, Baptist oppo-tunity is
largely lost in the conquest of
this world for Christ.
3. Lastly, Baptists cannot live
and flourish without ariwiZi/. Or
thodoxy and spirituality are
powerless states of being with
out the exercise of zeal and en
ergy, especially missionary zeal
and energy. We have education
and wealth and much of the be
nevolent spirit, as a people, but
the future watchword in the sue
cessful progress of life Baptist
denomination is LIBERALITY,
other things being equal, in the
accomplishment of personal en
ergy and effort. We do not be
gin to give and do what we ought
at home nor abroad, in the local
wonk of the churches, nor in our
missionary operations, and for
this fault in our system our con
servatism and opposition to the
methods of other people are
largely responsible. The Bap
tist denomination is largely moss
back in this particular; for the
mossback is one who thinks the
way you do a thing is as impor
tant as the reason for doing it.
He is as conservative in method
as he is in principle, and under
this hardshell idea thousands of
Baptists fail to see that while
the fixed principles and practices
of the gospel are inflexible and
unchangable, yet within these
fixed principles and practices,
the methods of gospe' work are
radical, flexible and , variant.
Hence a vast amountßaptist
opposition, or -snity-wdsobv to
systematic beneficent ai/id or
ganized effort in missionary and
other enterprises. There are
millions of Baptists to day who
want a “thus saith the Lord”
sortieing your shoestrings when
it comes to giving and going un
der the great commission of
Christ. The great Baptist op
portunity of the nineteenth cen
tury is gone sure enough, when
we come short of that great com
mission by any sort of mossback
conservatism. Let Baptists be
conservative in their principles
and peculiarities, liberal in spirit
and pocketbook, radical in meth
ods of work and aggression, and
their great opportunity will still
remain unto them.
Nashville, Tenn.
for the Index.
The History of the Institute.
BY F. C. M’ CONNELL.
Having seen a good deal about
the Institute work of late and
since brother J. B. Richards
mentions me so kindly in con
nection with its beginning, I
think it will not be uninteresting
to have a short history of the
work.
Something more, or a little
less than thirty years ago, my
father attended the session of
the Hiawassee Association, held
at Shooting Creek, in Western
N. C. (The Hiawassee Associa
tion at that time was composed
of border churches on the State
line between North Carolina and
Georgia.)
Father was not a member of
the church then, but was a close
observer and a wellwisher to the
cause. In listening to the pro
gress of the business of the as
sociation, the debates, etc., he
was impressed that those who
had no education should be pro
vided such help as was possible
under the circumstances. He
conceived the idea of the Insti
tute, but under an entirely differ
ent name and altogether differ
ent management.
At the close of the day’s ses
sion father insisted on taking
Rev. John Corn (brother, de
ceased, of our venerable Alfred
Corn) home with him, several
miles from the place of the
meeting, telling him that he had
something important to lay be
fore him, and desired that they
might have time to discuss it.
They rode together on horse
back across the mountains to my
father’s home, and discussed the
subject in all its bearings, result
ing in the purpose that it should
be laid before the Association
the next day for consideration.
The plan was this : That a com
mittee should be appointed com
posed of five of the best quali
fied men in the body, w T ho should
constitute the teaching force and
be called the Ministerial Coun
cil. These were to have depart
ments respectively, Doctrine,
Church History, Discipline, Pul
pit Decorum and one other,
which Ido not now recall. This
committee was directed* to hold
meetings annually or oftener if
desired, inviting all who would to
attend and be instructed. The
Association adopted the plan,
appointed the committee, which
for some reason never had a
meeting.
About the time I was im
pressed to preach, about fifteen
years later, the subject was
again brought up in the Associa
tion met with favor, was adopted
without materal change, and the
committee,consisting of brethren
of sacred memory, appoint
ed. Four of whose names I
well remember. They were:
E. Hadden, A. Corn, J. Burch
and E. Kimsey (Singular that
each should have a single ini
tial.)
The first meetingof the Council
was appointed for Monday after
the second Sunday in August,
1879. When the day arrived,
three of the council appeared,
and one pupil to be taught. I
shall never forget how I felt. I
said to myself, here I am, the one
only stick, and these old breth
ren are going to beat me into
shape. There was one other
present, who had ridden thirty
miles to be there. He was in no
sense a young preacher. It was
Rev. Thomas Carter, of blessed
memory. The second day of the
Council was very rainy, and
none of the teachers appeared
except Rev. A. Corn That was
the day for Church History. One
teacher and one pupil, but the
day was not lost. The first
Church History I had ever heard
was read to me that day by that
dear old man of God. Uncle
Corn and I held out throughout
tiae week and appointed another
meeting for the next year.
These meetings were held an
nually in the bounds of the
Hiawassee Association, with va
rying interest, for several years.
I soon became one of the teach
ers, having gone to the Semi
nary meanwhile, and spending
vacations in that section Fi
nally the brethren elected me sole
teacher. Then we enlarged the
work, adopted te’xt books, added
other studies, lengthened the
time to two weeks, sometimes a
month and once two months.
The numbers who came to study
with us were greatly increased.
At one time there were one
hundred and twenty. Rev. R.
D. Hawkins kindly joined me
one year, and taught a grammar
course in connection with the
other studies. Brethren attended
these Institutes who came two
hundred miles to them.
After several years there arose
a great desire to hold the Insti
tutes at other places, all of them
hitherto being held at Hiawas
see. 2. t first I consented to hold
one at Gainesville, where I be
came pastor at graduation, 1888.
Some two or three were held at
Gainesville, which were well at
tended and of great value. Then
it began to spread. Other sec
tions all around wanted Insti
tutes, and I found myself utterly
unable to meet the demand.
But it was destined of God, I
think, to wider usefulness still,
and He disclosed gifts which He
had placed in Rev. A. B
Vaughan, of Canton, Ga., and
Rev. J. A. Wynne, of Marietta,
Ga. These dear brethren, greatly
refreshed my spirit by develop
ing rapidly into splendid conduc
tors.
Rev. J. A. Scarboro had been
engaged with signal success in
conducting mission Institutes in
South Georgia, and the State
Mission Board instructed Dr. J.
G. Gibson, their secretary, to
use Bro. Scarboro in the Insti
tute work at his discretion.
About this time I discovered
that Rev. B. D. Ragsdale, of Con
yers, Ga., was pre-eminently
qualified for the successful con
duct of Institutes throughout
the State. Accordingly the State
Board secured his services and
inaugurated the Institute as a
department of State Mission
work —one of the very best
means of doing good that can be
inaugurated.
Ragsdale is happily suited to
the work and will do more good
at that work than he could do at
any other. Give him your hearts
and hands.
Lynchburg, Va.
Noah, who escaped the deluge
of water, whether this may or
may not be, gives us little con
cern, as Genesis admits of adjust
ment to either view. But, oh,
the vital question, the one that
ought to trouble and stir the
soul, is whether there are tribes
of men contemporary with our
selves, who, perchance, through
our neglect and unfaithfulness,
shall not escape the deluge of sin
now sweeping over the earth ?
Only To-day.
Yesterday now is part of forever,
Bound up in r sivaf which God holds tight,
With glad days and sad days and bad days,
which never
Shall visit us more with their bloom and
their blight.
Their fullness of sunshine or sorrowful
night.
Let them go. since we cannot relieve them,
Cannot undo and cannot atone;
God In His mercy forgive, receive them!
Only the new days an* our own.
To day is ours, and to day alone.
—Susan Coolidge.
The Bible—The Teacher.
The criticism of life in its
highest earnestness is infinitely
harder to bear than that of the
intellect. Christian people think
of the groups of learned, acute,
ambitious, and undevout men in
the universities of Germany and
Great Britain and America, and
they fear for the Bible in their
hands. They seldom reflect that
such tests are insignificant beside
those applied to this book by
noble life under the sense of in
adequacy for its task. It is said
that the drowning man ■ will
clutch at a straw, but this he will
not do if there is anything more
substantial to clutch. The real
and terrible test of the Word of
God is applied by the sinner who
cries out for forgiveness, by the
spirit crushed with the-conscious
ness of moral infirmity in the
presence of eternal ideals, by
the heart under the shadow of a
great sorrow, by the soul look
ing in bewilderment into the
worlds beyond time. When one
sees men going to the Bible with
an awakened conscience, turning
its pages in the- hope that they
may inspire a purpose that will
hold in the mortal struggle with
temptation, listening for its
voices of comfort that they may
weep no more, and looking for
its light in the thick darkness of
death, then one begins to tremble
for the fate of the great book.
If it can bear the strain of the
intensest and noblest life, it can
smile at all other tests. The in
tellectual trial of the Bible, com
pared with the moral, is as in
significant as the arrows and
shells which theLQliputians shot
at Gulliver would be, placed be
side the missiles of a modern
battleship. The great thing
about the Bible is, not thatitcan
survive the assaults of hostile
criticism, but that it is able to
endure the assaults of life. And
this it has been ible to do be
cause it has carried the minds of
men beyond itself. The Bible
owes infinitely more to Christ
than Christ does to the Bible.
Take him out of it, make him no
longer accessible through it, and
it would become at once no more
than a splendid antiquity. It is
his presence in it, mystic in the-
Old Testament, historic in the
New, real and divine in both, that
has given it all its power; and its
endurance of the vast moral trial
to which the successive centu
ribs of earnest men have subject
ed it comes from the Lord If
one retains him in it, and reaches
him as the wisdom of God
through it, the Bible will con
tinue to sustain the weight of the
whole earnest world. The most
terrible critic is not the undevout
scholar, but the man who wants
standing in the truth and assur
ance of eternal reality.
* * *
But the assumption, that when
a man is forgotten .his influence
is necessarily over, is whollyun
founded. Keeping to Bishop
Brooks as a convenient and mag
nificent symbol, it must be said
that his publications are the
smallest part of him. There are
thousands of living men and wo
men whose characters he touched
with transforming power, and
who are the transmitters of the
great vital impulse received from
him. While the generation lasts
to which he spoke, his influence
in the world will be conscious
and controlling. There is always
danger that the good book may
be prized above the good man,
which is fatal folly. But it is
said that men die and books live
on. To this it must be replied
that the average term of man’s
existence is greatly in excess of
that of even powerful books.
One-half of the human race, it is
computed, die in infancy, and it
is believed that a similar compu
lation would show that infant
mortality among literary produc
tions is greater far. If it be true
that those whom the gods love
die young, nine-tenths of the
books published must be very
highly regarded in Heaved.
More human beings than books
can be found, out of every gen
eration, w 7 ho have attained the
age of one hundred years. Set
ting aside the few’ books that
cannot die, to the number of
which a remarkable century adds
one or two perhaps, a human be
ing is a vastly better investment
than a novel, or a treatise scien
tific, philosophical, or theologi
cal. The hope of the true book-'
maker is that his publication may
meet a sympathetic mind, fertil
ize it, command its spiritual
power, and thus prolong its life
after death. The office of the
VOL. 76-NO. 13
mother is infinitely greater than
that of the successful novelist.
The mothers rule the world from
their graves. In the influence of
Edwards and Bushnell and Em
erson and Carlyle, that of their
firstand greatest teachers still
lives. What the last of these
writers has said of his mother
has its echo in the heaat of our
whole nobler humanity. “O
pious mother! kind, good, brave,
and truthful sc ul as I have ever
found, and more than I have ever
elsewhere found in this world,
your poor Tom, long out of his
school days now’, has fallen very
lonely, very lame and broken, in
this pilgrimage of his; and you
cannot help him orcheer him-by
a kind word any more. From
your grave in Ecclefechan Kirk
yard yonder you bid him trust in
God, and that also he will try if
he can understand and (Zo.”
There was a time when noble
women forgot their sorrow 7 for
joy that a man was born into the
world; now it is the issue of a
novt 1 that scatters the deep anx
ieties. Old Socrates was right
in thinking more of the sympa
thetic »and large-minded pupil
than of the literary production.
The works of Plato are rich and
priceless, but Plato hhmself is
largely the work of Socrates.
And the greatest achievement of
the master of the Academy w 7 as
that he moulded the thought and
evolved the intellectual power of
Aristotle. If fate should sub
mit for the choice of the gifted
and powerful a good book or a
great character to bear abroad
and continue his influence in the
world, he w 7 ould be a fool who
should choose the book in pref
erence to the character. Even
if their tombstones, unlike that
of Fichte’s, make no mention of
it, the prophecy is forever true
that “the teachers shall shine as
the brightness of the firmament,
and they that turn many to
righteousness as the for
ever and ever. ”
This is the great principle un
derlying the strange conceit of
apostolical succession. The con
ceit is, that episcopal ordination
runs back to the ordination which
the apostles received from
Christ, and that to the hands of
bishops the grace that truly con
secrates a man to the work of
the Christian ministry is con
fined. The groat principle is,
that life comes only from life,
and that the moral and spiritual
power of the present generation
is largely derived from the holy
succcession that goes back to
the creative soul of Christ for its
endow’ment. The unseen is still
over the Christian world, and its
doors are not shut against its
prayers and faith. The windows
of Heaven are ever open, and the
flood of life is always descending
into hospitable souls. But all
.the good that believers enjoy
does not come in that direct w’ay.
History means more than even
the profoundest thinker can
know: the ordering of human be
ings in a grand succession in
time counts for much in the edu
cation and achievements of man
kind. Jesus gathered about him
the finest youth of his time. He
meu’ded their thought, con
trolled their passion, dominated'
their will, and gave them the life
of God. They went forth with
the vital supply which grew
greater the more it was drawn
upon, and established their su_
premacy over thousands. Again
the receivers became givers, the
conquered conquerors, and the
tide of divine life rolled over nt w
spaces of our common humanity.
And so it has rolled on down to
our own generation. It is the
stream that makes glad the city
of God. It has its head-waters
in Christ, and its sacred and
ever-broadening channel is the
multitude that no man can num
ber that in each generation have
believed that the surest w 7 ay to
perpetuate personal pow’er in the
earth is to charge a successor
w’ith the life of the Lord.— The
Christ of To-day—Gordon.
How to live is the great study
of the world. Dying is of com
parative unimportance. Mr.
Lecky writes, that in the Irish
legends it is told of a lake in
Munster that there were two is
lands in it; into one of them
death could never enter; but age
was there and sickness and all
the infirmities of life and the
pains and woes of dreadful suffer
ing; and the inhabitants, worn
and feeble, bowed under burdens
they could not support and
which they could not throw off,
grew tired of their immortality
and looked longingly over to the
other island where death reigned,
as to a very paradise. They
launched their boat upon the
gloomy and tempestuous waters
and sailed for the shores where
they were sure to die, and when
their trembling feet trod upon
them, they were at rest. We
need not shrink from death if we
have fulfilled the mission of our
' life. — Burdett Hart, D.D.