FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from Benjamin S. Winchester, Edwin Markham

[The Independent.]

Nothing finer has been said or can be said on the subject than this which Mr. Taft has written for a missionary meeting. He admits that there was a time when, "enjoying a smug provincialism," he did not appreciate the importance of mission work, but experience in the Orient taught him better. He writes: "No man can study the movement of modern civilization from an impartial standpoint and not realize that Christianity and the spread of Christianity are the only bases for hope of modern civilization in the growth of popular self-government. The spirit of Christianity is pure democracy. It is the equality of men before God, the equality of men before the law, which is. as I understand it. the most Godlike manifestation that man has been able to make. ... It is my conviction that our nation is just as much charged with the obligation to help the unfortunate people of other countries that are thrust upon us by fate on to their feet, to become a self-governing people, as it is the business of the wealthy and fortunate in a community to help the infirm and the unfortunate of that community." [Rev. Benjamin S. Winchester in The Outlook.]

The minister of to-day must know human life, in all its manifold conditions and with all its variety of disease and sin. He must also know God, and know how to bring to every kind of human need the infinite strength and healing power of the divine Spirit. The seminary which seeks thus to adapt means to end has before it a great opportunity. By the time it is ready for students they will come. Ry the time students are graduated, churches will be begging for such service as they can render. And business men will be glad to invest their money in an institution that is "practical."

[Edwin Markham in Success.]

There is no miracle, if by miracle is meant the abrogation of the law. The natural law never has been and never will be broken. So when Jesus performed his wonders he simply laid his wise hand on the lever of the tin known law. In this law all things are circling to their destinies. This does not mean that God is ever balked in the final achievement of His purposes, for in the allwonderful law all things are possible. Men, as they rise toward the arch-natural, or higher, degree of life, will rise into the realm of miracle. "Greater works than these shall he do," said Jesus. [The Christian Register.]

When a church or a denomination is really alive and is set in motion by worthy impulses bred of noble sentiments. little heed is taken of the external forms of expression. The spirit of all truth can speak in any language and express itself through any form, and out of things old and new shape for itself, without thought or effort, the form of speech or the mode of action which best suits the inner life which is striving to express itself. They who have life, and have it abundantly, must acquire the active habits of well-doing. For well-being seeks to express itself in action.

[The New York Observer.]

That which travels by the avenues of the ear or the eye into the mind advantages nothing unless it be properly assimilated into character and spiritual fiber. We all take in much more of Christian teaching and exhortation than we actually absorb into our being.

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October 10, 1908

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