There is a very real sense in which we may speak of "The Descent of Man," and also of "The Ascent of Man." The former takes place every time a man yields to his passions and appetites in spite of the Spirit's remonstrance sounding in his ears. The latter takes place when the ethical, rational element triumphs over the lustful, brutish element.

We have been accustomed to regard the fall of man as an historical event of long ago, a terrible disaster which befell the first human pair, an entailed woe upon all their posterity. But we must remember that the fall is an actual occurrence in the life of every human soul that becomes truly self-conscious. When he "comes to himself" as a moral being, it is discovered that he has slipped, fallen, and injured himself. It matters not whether the fall has been brought about through hereditary weakness, unfortunate environment, or personal waywardness, he must face the fact that he is down, and that he has down. He realizes that the animal part of his nature is in the ascendant and is stifling the spiritual part. Then comes the appeal and the decision, to determine whether he will remain down, or arise and stand; whether the lower nature will be gratified at the expense of the higher, or the higher hold dominion over the lower; whether he will be content with his "Descent" or struggle for an "Ascent."

The Watchman.

According to The Christian Register, ex-Secretary Long said at the recent Unitarian Anniversaries: "As one looks at the development of the Christian theology, the Christian system, for centuries and centuries it seems to have been a steady sort of piling on, incrustation, augmentation, integumentation, accretion, excrescences, until it had utterly outgrown its original simplicity; and the great work of the last hundred years—certainly the great work of the last fifty years—has been in stripping off all this and getting back ... to the simplicity of Jesus Christ and the religion which he taught. ... It may not be the proper thing to say; but if we could drop theological dispute for ten years, forget all the forms, and wake up then and take up the Christian teaching, the example and the religion of Jesus Christ, the world would accept it as the highest and the truest manifestation of human truth and of human hope."

Best of all, the witness of upright lives says more persuasively than any lips can say, "Be like me." Goodness is attractive. Because the Church in Jerusalem chose Barnabas, who "was a good man," as its messenger to the inquirers at Antioch, "much people was added unto the Lord." What would have happened if they had chosen a man of many gifts, but after all not genuine? They did not make that mistake. The record says that Barnabas was filled with the Holy Ghost, and that he was a man of faith, but first of all it says that he "was a good man." The result was that he was a good witness for the new faith. His kind of Christianity was contagious—and it always will be.

The Congregationalist and Christian World.

The stand taken by our Presbyterian brothers in softening their creed means a deliverance from pessimism. "This," says a prominent member of that body, "means that we are henceforth to be permitted to believe in the unlimited goodness of God, and in the salvation of humanity as a whole. I believe there is not one dark spot in the universe that will not sooner or later come out white,—dark human souls are surely no exceptions. I cannot believe in a good God, and see otherwise." It is a red letter day for religion when there is no longer left a Church declaration of belief in the wreckage of creation, and the final failure of universal good will.—The Christian Register.

Rev. G. H. Ashworth says in The Universalist Leader: "We are now in the midst of a religious reformation, one that the coming centuries will look upon much as we look upon the reformation of the sixteenth century. And the result of this theological revolution, brought about as it has been by spiritual evolution, will be a readjustment of the essentials of Christianity,—a readjustment that will eliminate all the objectionable elements of Christianity and justify our spelling Christianity with a capital C. Believing that we have been mistaken as to what Christianity is, we would naturally expect their conclusions to be wrong as to what constitutes a Christian."

Truth cannot change; if it does, it cannot be Divine truth; therefore the creed of a Church which is inspired by the Spirit of Truth, is, and must be, the Faith "once for all delivered to the saints."

While, however, the Faith itself thus continues unchanged, there may be progress in the human apprehension of the Faith. But the progress must always be in the Faith, not away from it; not away from it; not in addition to or substractions from the Old Faith, but simply in a clearer understanding of the central truth of the incarnation.—Bishop Satterlee.

On the occasion of the Baptist Anniversaries at St. Paul, Dr. Henson, as reported in The watchman said: "The devil shut up religion to the meeting-houses. He turns it into a cold storage warehouse, where religion is kept on ice. The early Church had not a meeting-house. We have them to burn, and I have sometimes thought that was the best use to which some of them could be put, for then, at least, the people would see a light where they had never seen one before, and get a glow for once."

The Philadelphia letter in The Church Standard, speaking about the graduates (ladies) of the Church Training and Deaconess House, makes this comment: "The faculty is much pleased by the proficiency of the students as shown in the recent final exanimations. Some of the questions on theology were answered so well as to indicate that woman's intuitional endowment may especially serve her in the apprehension and in the imparting of dogmatic truth."

J. W. Weddell, D.D., says in The Standard: "Some one has said we need not look afar across lands and seas for our Holy Land. Our Holy Land, if we will make it such, is right around us. The struggle of a valiant soul against the odds that lie about makes all ground holy ground. 'Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.' Do it right where you are and the ground whereon you stand is holy ground."

Alexander McLaren, D.D., says in The Homiletic Review: "The elevation determines the vision, and the clearer and the closer, and the deeper our habitual fellowship with God in Christ, the more lofty will our conceptions be of what we ought to be. The reason for inconsistent lives is imperfect communion, and the higher we go on the mount of vision the clearer will our vision be."

Rev Marion F. Ham says in The Christian Register: "Like Nicodemus, if the most of us seek the light at all, we are careful to seek it under cover of darkness. Intellectual dishonesty is the spiritual cancer of this age. To-day its roots run far into the vitals of the Church. The only question is how long the patient's vitality can withstand its deadly result."

The testimony of those who come in touch with heathenism leads to the admission that human nature the world over is much the same, and human thinking on the great essentials of life as earnest and as searching in heathendom as in Christendom. One is the search of intellect in the dark, the other the progress of the enlightened mind.

The Standard.

The modern Church is in need of a larger measure of the Holy Ghost, a deeper consecration to God, and fuller spiritual life. The Church may break down by her own weight if she is not very spiritual. It is easy to see tendencies in the modern Church to become a political institution or a social club, or a commercial agency. Nothing can save it but divine grace.—The Christian Advocate.

The Church has not yet reached up to the full doctrine of Christ, but the day is rapidly coming when the test of Church membership shall be whether a man loves his fellowman.—Rev. Rainsford.

The Congregationalist says: "To proclaim Christ's invitation with good words is much, but to be ourselves Christ's invitation by a life of constant cheerfulness is at once the noblest and the commonest of all earth's opportunities."

One of the purposes of the fifth petition of the Lord's Prayer is to remove the possibility of there being such a thing in a Christian Congregation as two Christians too unchristian to speak to each other.

Philadelphia Lutheran.

The watchman has this paragraph: "Prof. Goldwin Smith makes a center shot when he speaks of the 'vacuum in the region of religious belief which music, flowers, art, and pageantry are required to fill.' "

Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst says: "The best doctrine is that which does most to make men Godlike, and the best denomination is the one that will graduate the finest saints and the most of them."