The Universalit Leader says editorially: "Why should we not pay for our religion as one of the necessities of our life? Why should the church be looked upon as an object of charity and the minister as one to whom we are doing a favor? We do not make the grocer and the coal dealer feel that they exist only through our generosity; we pay for what we get and hold the dealer in the highest respect. We do not resent it when his monthly statement comes. Why should we not place the church on the same high business level? Why not pay for our religious culture, just as frankly and freely as we pay for an education and for our food? When will the people who want their church to stand well in the community cease telling about what they give to the minister and speak of what they pay, and are glad to pay, for their religion?"

Rev. Geo. R. Wood says in the (Baptist) Standard: "Most Christians desire to be strong. They covet strength to overcome their own difficulties and long for power to influence others. In their desire for power they frequently overlook many simple and practical sources of strength. One of these simple but must efficient, sources of strength is suggested in Nehemiah, 8:10, in which Ezra, the scribe, declares to Israel that 'The joy of the Lord is your strength.' Then joy of the Lord is your strength.' Then let the world know it. Let the Christian speak of the joy that comes from being a holier, healthier, happier, more peaceful and hopeful man, instead of always telling of his burdens, trials, and failures."

The Congregationalist says: "The Orthodox, or Established Church in Russia is, relatively to other churches, fully as predominant as was the Established Church in England one hundred years ago. It is even more insistent in controlling educational and social life and in giving superior privileges to its members. Yet of the 130,000,000 people in Russia no less than 12,000,000 assert their independence of the ecclesiastical control of the Greek Church, while they hold faith in Christ and worship in various religious organizations. Some of those removed to Siberia in order that they might enjoy greater religious freedom than in Russia proper."

A writer in The Unity Herald says: "It is a bad sign for the Christianity of this day that it provokes so little opposition. If there were no other evidence of its being wrong I should know it from that. When the world and the church can jog along comfortably together you may be sure there is something wrong. The world has not altered. Its spirit is exactly the same as it ever was, and if the Christians were equally faithful and devoted to the Lord and separated from the world, living so that their lives were a reproof to all ungodliness, the world would hate them as much as ever it did. It is the church that has altered, not the world."

The (Unitarian) Christian Register says: "Women as sovereigns have often been extraordinarily successful. There is something in the traditions of history and the influence of events which in a mysterious way prepares great nations to submit to the sway of a woman, even when others of her sex of the same nationality are exposed to all the disabilities of tradition and custom. That at the same moment two women could rule over great nations in Europe and Asia, with conspicuous ability, the one the native of a country where women are highly honored, and the other of one where they are despised, is one of the curiosities of history."

The (Methodist) Christian Advocate says: "Is it not a fitting time to kindle anew the fires of spiritual religion? These fires have not gone out, but they do not burn and blaze as we should like to see them. If the religious life and activity of the Church shoudl not keep pace with commercial and secular progress, the result will be disastrous. Our prosperity will be a curse instead of a blessing. It is impossible to measure the progress of religion and to compare it with secular advancement. We can count numbers, but no one can measure or estimate spiritual growth and power."

Ian Maclaren says in the Christian Endeavor World: "The depreciation of kindness in private life which is one of the features of our day, is very largely due to the fashion of intellectualism; but yet human nature below the surface of crazes and phrases remains the same, and his fellows still judge a man by his heart rather than by his head. When the jury is selected, not from a coterie, but from the marketplace, the person who is kind will ever be preferred to the person who is clever; and thoughtful, to use a can't word of our day, is still less than warmhearted."

Bishop Hendrix says in the (Baptist) Examiner: "Men see clearly the realism of evil. What is needed is some one to proclaim the realism of good. The secular press, current literature, the stage, all portray, and ceaselessly, the realism of evil. Good men take up the refrain and exhort, 'Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.' The mind of Christ is expressed so long as there are men to proclaim the fundamental fact, the underlying principle of the mission of Christ: 'For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.'"

The (Unitarian) Christian Register says: "President Jordan, describing a trip across Indiana, says: 'A common traveler got off the train and a coop of chickens was put on. The people had no welcome for the traveler and no tears for the fowls; yet at the station I counted forty men and boys.—farm boys, who ought to have been doing something somewhere,—every interest of economics and æsthetics alike calling them away from the station and off on the farm.' This is the strongest impression of travel elsewhere,—not gorgeous scenery, but human waste."

The Universalist Leader says: "Naturalness is needed everywhere. Artificiality, pretentiousness, straining after effects by unnatural methods, are sure to avail but little as novelties, and in the long run weaken the influence of all who practise them.... Artificiality and assumption are dangerously near hypocrisy. Even in the dramatic profession it is naturalness that attracts and wins. Let a man be himself everywhere, his best self as fully as he can, and he will ne justly rated by his fellows, whether his field of action be a private or a public one."

The Sunday School Times has the following: "To speak a kindly word of commendation or encouragement may be a very little thing for you, but a very helpful thing to the one to whom it is spoken. Never a day passes without bringing you opportunities for such service to others. Does a day over pass without your improving such an opportunity? If so, you have reason to reproach yourself with the omission, and others have reason to regret your failure. Inasmuch as you did it not you failed in your positive duty."

A writer in the Homiletic Review says: "Love is the broad idea of charity, an affectionate sympathy with men in their sorrows, and a kindly disposition toward everybody. Love in the abstract we have; but have we love in the concrete? We can love welldressed, cultured people of our own kind; but can we love lovely, ignorant, and unlovely men of an alien race? Have we that broad charity toward all which suffereth long and is kind?"

At a meeting in New York recently. Bishop Potter had occasion to praise the intelligence of the Chinese, and gave the following instance in support of what he had said: "I once had a Chinese servant who, in filling an order for me, described me as Number One Joss Pigeon. He had in these few words fully described my title. Joss meant religion and pigeon business. I was the number one religious man, and my curate was number two joss pigeon."

"Name, in Scripture," says Swedenborg, "signifies quality." To be saved by the name of Jesus, the "name above every name," therefore means that we are saved by having the Christ quality in ourselves; and to spread his name is simply to publish the kind of life which Jesus had in himself and manifested to others. There is no power in mere names or words; the letter kills.

Universalist Leader.

The (Baptist) Standard says: "The total membership of the evangelical churches in the United States is in the neighborhood of 19,000,000, or about one-fourth of the population. Even if we discount this fifty per cent for padded statistics, inactive members, etc., the remaining Christian force should be capable of accomplishing great things for Good and righteousness."

The story is told that Cardinal Manning, upon going to his publishers for a copy of his book entitled "Confidence in God," was told that he would have to wait to hear from the stockroom, and in a few minutes heard in a loud voice bellowed from an upper floor: "Manning's 'Confidence in God' is all gone."

The Advance.