FROM OUR EXCHANGES

[Outlook.]

To be kind in judgment does not involve indifference to moral standards or desertion of ideals. It is not a question of blindness; it is a question of largeness of view. The offensiveness of sin, which rested so heavily on the hearts and minds of our ancestors, is not a whit lessened. Sin is still a horror when it works out its fruits in human life. But there has come a vast difference of feeling toward the sinner, because there has come so much larger and penetrating a knowledge of the influence of conditions of all sorts and kinds. What has happened has not been a desertion of the old standpoint of the righteous man who hated sin, but a recognition of the complexity of the individual problem and the difficulty of doing justice to the individual sinner. We still hate the sin, but we no longer hate the sinner. What has happened has been a change of position from the standpoint of the Old to the standpoint of the New Testament. The emphasis of our criticism and judgment ought to rest on our own faults, not on the faults of other people. But few of us have the capacity for self-denial involved in leaving other people's faults alone and dealing firmly and with clear eyes with our own. And yet, as a rule, the faults of others do not harm us. They rather amuse us, or irritate us; while our own faults are constantly inflicting the most serious injuries on us.

[Examiner.]

If one's prayer is merely a selfish wish, aimed at an ear in the invisible world on the mere chance of persuading a listener who has the power to grant our wish, there is no reason on either natural or spiritual grounds for hoping that it will be answered. Its selfishness makes it certain that a wise and good being would not answer it; for to answer would be to make selfishness dominant over wisdom and goodness, and dominant selfishness means dominant badness and final ruin. God as a being can mean nothing less to a really prayerful man than the highest conceivable goodness and purity manifested in supreme personality. The very meaning of prayer to him is that there is in us a ruling desire to be brought into closer likeness to God, and to be overruled by Him. A selfish prayer could be addressed to God only under the conception that He was the mighty executor of the universe, rather than the loving Father and righteous ruler. Prayer is not a short cut to personal gratification. It is not the bringing of pressure to bear upon the power which touches the springs of life, but is bringing divine influence upon us, that we may give full effect to the good and wise will of God in our living and in our character.

[Christian World, London.]

You cannot live by another man's truth; you must live by your own. You cannot be saved by untruths, whatever may be their outside sanctions. The winning of the higher truths involves a perpetual moral discipline. As the discipline proceeds the truths will shine with ever brightening luster. The way of ascent here, as one of the church fathers observes, is by holiness of life. We can only influence our fellows by the truth we have ourselves won.

[Zion's Herald.]

To be a Christian is not simply to hold some kind of a theory of religion, or even the theory of the Christian religion, but means a practical obedience to the revealed precepts of God, so that we fellow him who is the truth in the way and press of life, pursnant to his behest: "If ye love me, keep my commandments." We must get on with truth, and truth must get into us, and be evaluated in daily living.

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