At the same time, however useful these studies may be to an elucidation of the Biblical text, one may attain high proficiency in them without perceiving the spiritual message of the book and without having his own heart respond to it. And the encouraging note at Chicago [at the Religious Education Convention] was that that great body of educators and leaders of Christian thought appeared to feel that what the Bible has to say about spiritual realities—about God and destiny and obligation and righteousness and forgiveness—is of vital importance.

We are inclined to believe that this attitude toward the Bible is coming to be characteristic of the best Christian thought. Christian scholarship has been wandering in the desert for quite forty years. The transition from the treatment of the Bible as a treasury of texts, all of which are of equal value, to a revelation of a way and a power of life has been slow and painful, but there are a good many signs that the Promised Land is not far in the distance. The most effective preachers to-day are not spending too much time on telling their congregations how we got the truth, but they are telling them what the truth is, and trusting that as truth it will commend itself to the human heart. The external evidences coming from the authority of documents are of immense value, but the self-evidence of the truth to the human soul, and its power of meeting the needs of the spirit, while interpreting it to itself, energizing its functions and creating new necessities, are also of crowning worth. In modern apologetics the authority of the Scripture is best vindicated in the experience of the soul that obeys its message. And we are coming to preach and teach the Book as a message.

The Watchman.

A new purpose, called by a noble courage out of a heartful of dead hopes, will be surer and swifter of fulfilling higher, more unselfish, and more truly satisfying than that which failed. Men rise to grander heights on "stepping-stones of their dead selves."

And so it is with the lives that grief and loss have saddened. Deep in the soil of such desolation are always the rarest germs, which only need the sunshine of hope to blossom forth in bewildering beauty. . . . It is the heart that has been ploughed by disappointment, harrowed by pain, and sowed by experience, and which has then lain silent under the snows of bereavement, in which the perfect flowers of happiness and content finally open.

But kindness is the strongest, sweetest, most compelling sunshine that ever fell warmly upon the winter of humanity. It breaks the ice of hate and selfishness and subdues the blasts of anger; within soil upon which it rests, seeds of envy, jealousy, deceit and other poisonous weeds shrivel and die; but the fragrant herbs and sweet flowers of human nature spring up abundantly. Whether given or received, kindness is uplifting, invigorating, warming, gladdening. It is the essence of all goodness.

The (Brattleboro) Reformer.

The Rev. William H. van Allen, in a recent Lenten sermon preached at St. Paul's Church, Boston, is reported by the Boston Transcript to have said: "Nothing is more significant to the open eye and ear than the popular attacks upon the Church as distinguished from Christianity. One hears of assemblages hissing the name of Christ. Hostility to the Church comes from a false conception of it. Think of three hundred warring sects in our own land, still subdividing daily. Christ's Church is a kingdom and is not a kingdom divided against itself. Protestantism in its division no longer holds fast to the infallible and undeceivable oracles of God, but on the contrary ignores all the Bible that is not compatible with its theories. There can no more be a new Church than a new God; there can no more be several Churches than many Gods."

The Rev. George D. Baker D.D., of the First Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, is quoted as follows by The Examiner:—

"Men are wearying of a Gospel that simply flatters them; of a Gospel that is only a patchwork of metaphysical platitudes and moral commonplaces. They are tiring of 'kindergarten religion,' of the mere playthings of outward forms. If men are falling away from the Church it is not necessarily because they are falling away from religion. Now, as ever, there is room for a Gospel, if it be Great.

"And the redemption scheme of Christ is great—very great. 'I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.'

"To the front with the old Gospel! Men are calling for it."

Occasionally I hear some one say with a pious air: "It doesn't matter what people think of me, I know my heart is right." Ah, my friend, but it does matter. Let me give you an illustration: In sight of my office window is a church tower; on each of the three sides there is a clock face. On one of these, one of the hands has been broken making the old clock tell strange tales. Of course, there are people who do not understand the circumstances and are, therefore, misled by it. At heart the old clock is all right, but that doesn't alter the seriousness of the fact that people have been late in meeting their engagements and have missed their trains because the face is not an index of that which it covers.—The Outlook.

Men are as ready to-day as in Christ's time to accept the benefits of Christianity, while unwilling that the principles of Christianity should rule in their lives. "Many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did." Such a faith meant nothing, morally or religiously, but was simply an intellectual submission. The miracles commanded the ascent of the mind, but left the heart and will untouched. Those who believed showed no new confidence in Christ, but simply a readiness to accept the gifts which he could bestow. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." One may be a theologian, in the scientific sense, and not be a Christian at all.—The Examiner.

There are thousands of professing Christians who had rather not have any company at all than the company of the spiritually minded. They can talk without limit about everything else but the spiritual life. Of this they have nothing to say, because they know nothing about it, and the atmosphere of spiritual conversation is not according to their mind. If Christian fellowship is to be maintained, Christian people must have a genuine, conscious religious experience.—The Christian Advocate.

It is the lives like the stars, which simply pour down on us the calm light of their bright and faithful being, up to which we look and out of which we gather the deepest calm and courage. No man or woman of the humblest sort can really be strong, gentle, pure, and good without the world being better for it, without somebody being helped and comforted by the very existence of that goodness.—PHILLIPS BROOKS.

The return of emphasis on spiritual self-culture should be most desired by those who seek most earnestly the salvation of the world. If the springs of spiritual life are becoming exhausted, while the world's need for what they have to give is growing greater, that will come to mean the cessation of the flow of streams to water other fields.

The Congregationalist and Christian World.

We are farthest away from God when we cannot perceive Him in our fellow-beings. The mirror of human nature is sadly blurred; but in the meanest and wickedest there are tokens of the divine childhood, occasional flashes of the Father's image through innumerable distortions. It is for us to show a clear reflection of His life in our own lives before we judge others.—LUCY LARCOM.

Remember that if the opportunities for great deeds should never come, the opportunity for good deeds is renewed for you day by day. The thing for us to long for is the goodness, not the glory.

F. W. FARRAR.

The Rev. M. J. Savage, replying to the Rev. Joseph Cook, contended that man cannot perpetually resist God's love and power. He said: "If God desire to save man and cannot, He is not God. If He do not desire to save them, while He can, He is not God."

God's truth requires a spiritual and quickened illumination both to its fullest comprehension and to its largest enjoyment. The Spirit-taught mind is essential to a right and profitable feeding upon holy things

Presbyterian.

The only satisfactory manifestations of religious character and life are associated with the reciprocal influences of spiritual experience and aggressive activity.

J. McC. HOLMES.

In darkness there is no choice. It is light that enables us to see the difference between things; and it is Christ that gives us light.

"Guesses at Truth."

Sacrifice brings its reward by converting simple duty into positive happiness. We have attained our end in the liberty to work freely with God.—JOHN JAMES TAYLER.