The Rev. Charles A. Crane in a sermon at People's Temple, Boston, recently, is reported by the Herald to have said:—

"When you look this present evil age fully in the face you are bound to say that there can be naught but endless war between it and the law of Jesus Christ. Because he would not moderate his wrath against the evils of his time, they plucked him by the beard and took him out and hung him. All the authorities of that time rested on selfishness and he preached sacrifice. Tempted to leave some truths unspoken he spared not. He could have sold out to the enemy, and the world would have never known it. And can you do less than follow him? What happens when a man preaches the Gospel? A thousand enemies assail him at once.

"When a preacher begins to care so much as the snap of his finger for the world, it's all over with him. Am I not tempted daily to soften the truth that some gentle souls may not be hurt? Have not some would-be friends told me to the face that the people will not listen to truth that tells of hell? Let the man stand forth who said to me not long ago that I could not hold my congregations without some new doctrine. Why, sirs, there is naught so new in this city as the simple Gospel plainly and honestly told."

The St. Louis Globe-Democrat quotes the Rev. Edmund Duckworth of St. James Episcopal Church as follows:—

"We may affirm with certainty that, on the whole, the world is growing better, although it may seem at times that existence is at its worst. Similar to world development is the development of the individual spiritual life. At times we seem to be growing in grace, yet often we become discouraged, for 'the mind is an artist at creating self-alarms.'

"We feel that our lives are declining in nobility of thought and of action. This arises from the misinterpretation of the feelings in regard to the spiritual life. In reality these feelings do not denote a declining spirituality, but are signs of a deeper life.

"The holiness we think is lost has brought a greater sensitiveness to the soul. The desire for progress signifies a larger development already attained, though the very desire makes the progress seem slow.

"The growth in spirituality is gradual and mysterious. Like the diamond hidden in the dark rock, the growth for a long time may not be apparent. Spiritual growth is aided by discipline, which brings after the sorrow a prefounder peace. The sense of God working in the life with a fixed purpose brings unspeakable joy."

The Rev. Floyd W. Tomkins, D.D., of Philadelphia and formerly of Providence, preaching recently in Appleton Chapel, Harvard College, said:—

"Jesus was too catholic to say, 'I am going to establish a Church which shall have the following rules and regulations.' He began by first of all saying to a few men, 'Follow me.' He took the letter of the law down and opened it, as he himself said, 'fulfilled it,' that is, filled it full of his own spirit. The garb which was around him had been torn away that men might see the humanity beneath it. This method of Christ in founding Christianity is very important.

Christianity has many interpretations. No law was ever written that two lawyers would interpret exactly alike. So it is with philosophy, theology, morality. There must be a reversion to the primitive truth, a washing away of poisonous ideas. If you are afraid to try it because it means a breaking up of some of your customs and habits, let me assure you that it means such peace, such certainty, such release from doubt that duty is transfigured into privilege. The world is seen to be growing better."

Rev. Carl S. Patton, in the Hartford Seminary Record, says: "A man may have religion and enjoy it and be made a good man by it, without knowing anything about the Hebrew Prophets, or without so much as stopping to define to himself what he thinks about God. Intelligence is not the only factor in religion, any more than it is in life generally. But after all, it is a pretty important factor in everything, and perhaps more important in religion than in anything else. There is no premium upon ignorance anywhere; and especially not in the spiritual world. The same conviction that declares that God is goodness, declares also that He is wisdom and truth. What is truth for the intellect is motive and inspiration to the spirit. From ideas about God which have cost us nothing we cannot expect much. But as we come more and more to know Him as He is, we shall both know how, and be able, to serve Him more nearly as we should."

The deeper teachings of poetry are not disposed of by the superficial question, Did the writer mean all that? No, we boldly answer, and yet he said it because he saw the principle which he did not, and perhaps at that time could not, consciously analyze. This is a principle admitted by all great critics, except Biblical critics. It is only Biblical critics who say that the interpreter's task is done when he has found out what the writer consciously meant at the time, and how his contemporaries understood him. In all prophetic utterance there is an element beyond that, and it is that element which is signal and vital in prophecy. When Biblical critics receive this principle, we shall have less trouble about the interpretation of the Old Testament.

CLAUDIUS CLEAR.

He passed out of sight and left behind him a few unlearned disciples, for the most part of low origin, with all the forces of the world against their appeal, the wealth of the world against their poverty, the learning against their ignorance, the power which wealth and learning and position command against their weakness. He bade them go and preach to this world the Gospel of the kingdom, the good news which came from the kingdom above; that God loved the world; that sin and sorrow, wars and tumults, poverty and death were not God's will, nor did they belong to His Kingdom.

ROBERT STUART MACARTHUR, D.D., LL.D.

The God of the Bible is omnipotent; the God of the Bible is omnipresent; the God of the Bible is universal in the sweep of His laws and in the compass of His love. And the Christ of the Bible is a Christ not limited to a certain era in history, not limited to the Christian Church and to Palestine. He is not merely a temporal Christ, but an eternal Christ. He is great, sublime, universal, cosmic, "the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world."

REV. JOSEPH A. MILBURN.

To speak frankly, my friends, I do not believe of the Scripture of Christ or of the future life what I did as a boy, nor do I think that any man who thinks and is in touch with the movements of thought can believe just what he did ten years ago and in the same way. Yet the world and men are moved by convictions, and I believe that convictions to-day are deeper and stronger than they ever were.—BISHOP LAWRENCE.

The saddest spectacle in this or in any world is a rational and moral being smitten with spiritual death, alive only to what is material and earthly, living without God and without hope. Beware of this inward death,—this insensibility to the presence, the authority, the goodness of our heavenly Father.

W. E. CHANNING.

If we find feelings of resentment rising against any who do not agree with us, there is a call to consider whether we are not in danger of dropping into the ranks of those whose mistaken zeal and violence have brought condemnation on themselves and reproach on the Church of God.

The Watchman.

The Churchman relates that when once President Kruger was called a hypocrite, one who knew him well replied: "He is no hypocrite: there is nothing the matter with his sincerity; the trouble is with his religion. He has got a bad religion. It justifies action which to you seems hypocritical."

There is nothing arbitrary in God's Judgments. The way of the transgressor is hard because it brings him into conflict with the world's true order and his own appointed way growth. Prophet and poet agree that it is out of the sinner's own transgressions the penalty grows.—Congregationalist.

Those who read the Bible for the sole purpose of discovering "the mistakes of Moses" and other imagined errors will not derive much profit from the perusal. But to him who seeks in it light on the pathway of life will find it luminous with truth and a sure guide to the feet.—The Examiner.

I do not know that martyrdom will prove any harder than that discipline which renders us quick to forgive, which can look upon the success of a rival with loving pleasure, which can maintain a guileless integrity in the minute transactions of life.

GEORGE BROWN.

In a strong editorial on "The Religious Question," the Christian Register says: "Nothing would do the world so much good as a revival of religion set free from the bondage of creeds and sects, and directed to the moral rectification of human conduct."