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with contributions from James Morris Whiton

A "Gospel of the Kingdom" that tries to reform the community without first reforming the men who constitute the community must inevitably fail to accomplish the end sought. The New Testament plan of uplifting society is based on a true philosophy. Regenerate the constituents of society, and you regenerate society. The reason why municipal reform is a failure in New York is because the majority of the people are not in sympathy with reform. And there can be no kingdom of God on earth, despite the dreams of Utopian philosophy, until a majority of the people—and a large majority—are willing subjects of the King.—The Examiner.

In discussing the great questions of the time, we should not forget that Jesus Christ is the solution of life's hardest problems. His utterances are perfect statutes for the regulation of the world's affairs. His Spirit is a perfect panacea for humanity's ills. We do not need to go beyond him for counsel. A study of his wisdom will amply equip the philanthropist who seeks the betterment of human conditions. Conduct him into any desert of need, and it takes on beauty and bloom. Admit him into any lane of misery and his passage through it transforms it into an avenue of comfort.—Pacific Christian Advocate.

No thoughtful man to-day believes that present existing ecclesiastical alignments are to be forever maintained. Something is coming in God's good time, more inclusive, more Christian....

Such an influence as this at work in the world to-day, aroused to its fullest capacity of service, may be potent in shaping the form which the larger unity shall take. Only, before launching complicated schemes of immediate absorption and consolidation of the various Christian battalions, let us Congregationalists see to it that first of all we illustrate within our own ranks the fellowship and the unity, the mutual love and good-will, the willingness to sacrifice for and serve one another, which are the only agencies on earth that can bring about the unity which Christ prayed might prevail among his followers the world over.

The Congregationalist and Christian World.

The idealism which lies within every man's reach and is every man's need, is surrender to the urgent and passionate desire to give his own spirit the shape and quality of the divine Spirit, and to create in himself those traits and that attitude which he yearns to find wrought into the fibre of society; to be in his own soul that which he wishes all men were. Conditions, whether easy or difficult, are secondary; the eternal element of peace and happiness lies in every man's soul, beyond the reach of accident. They who seek heaven must take refuge in their own spirits, not in some solitary place at a distance; and they must find it, not in more congenial circumstances, but in a freer and nobler putting forth of the best in themselves.

The Outlook.

Looking at the Church collectively, many a man outside has cause to say, "What do ye more than others?" It is not abstinence but achievement that attracts men and wins a following. Christianity can convince the world only when manifested in its true character as the way of self-realization. For self-realization is the grand object toward which, however misconceived, in ways however mistaken, all men are naturally bent.

Rev. James Morris Whiton, Ph.D.
The Homiletic Review.

We should hate not the sinner, but the sin that makes men enemies of God and truth and holiness.—The Examiner.

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