first instalment; Professor Fisher's timely and able articles on the Nature of Revelation, are but instances of many that might be given. The subject of Divorce is coming to the front and must be investigated. It has been cleverly treated in some of our periodicals, the North American Review for January having five brief articles on this topic from five of our representative women. This is a theme on which the pulpit should be heard from. The question of the family is as much the question of religion as it is of the State, and nothing so deeply touches the most sacred interests on carth-those of the home-as the shameful, the frightfully immoral tendencies of divorces as they prevail. And what is exactly to the point in this discussion, it is in the articles on this subject to be found in our periodicals, that the information can be obtained on which intelligent opinion can be made up. This is but one of many subjects treated of, on which the pulpit needs the expressed thought of to-day. The range is wide. Theological matters are handled-witness the late discussion in one of the English periodicals between Mr. Huxley and Dr. Wace. The various aspects of social science are largely unfolded. Missionary topics are handled, not always wisely but sometimes with great ability and service to the cause of missions, as was the case just after the great Missionary Convention met in London. Moralities are freely discussed. The most scathing exposure of the "cheating" systematically practised on the turf was made lately in an English periodical; and when the eloquent Bishop of Peterborough comes to the defence of, or apology for, a mild type of betting in one of the periodicals, we should all know what an ecclesiastic has to say on that side of things.

We are then prepared to ask the question directly as to the use for the ministry of an acquaintance with periodical literature. First, it is the best way of keeping in contact with the currents of thought that are circulating freely in the world. It will not answer in this age for the minister to have much of the recluse about him. He is expected to have a broad scholarship, and one that is conversant with the nineteenth century. I could instance men in the ministry who are reasonably well versed in the theology of the seventeenth century, who have little or no acquaintance with what is stirring in the thought of to-day. Their ignorance of current thought affects their preaching, it has a far-away sound. Even when the truth proclaimed is true alike for all centuries, somehow the accent of to-day is not in it. The influence of such a man is curtailed. If he is not well read some members of his congregation are the lawyer, the doctor, the young collegian who comes home in vacations. and wonders whether his pastor has not heard of the discoveries at Bubastis, or the theory of conscience which the philosophy of Herbert Spencer maintains. Even though the preacher makes no direct use

of his knowledge in his sermons, and never alludes to any discussion in the Forum or Nineteenth Century, still if he knows what they are saying about matters his preaching will have a different tone. It will not be one whit less evangelical, but it will have the power that comes when a man can say, "Yes, I have read what is to be said on the other side, and have not confined myself to systems of theology and commentaries."

a few

I have said the periodical is the best way of introducing any one to a knowledge of what is going on in the world of to-day. It is the best because it is the quickest. Here are condensed articles touching on a variety of subjects, readable, prepared by specialists often in their several departments, and a hours every month keeps one en rapport with what is doing in science or politics or philosophy or social science or moral reforms. Ministers are busy men. What time is left after the hard study on the sermon is taken up by the ceaseless round of parish visiting that daughter of the horse-leech crying, "Give, give." There are, however, the spare minutes, the odd half-hour, perhaps the last before bed-time. If these can be utilized they amount to a great deal in the course of a year. They can be utilized in two ways. One way is to keep a book in hand which does not demand consecutive reading; a book, for instance, like Amiel's Journal, and taking a glance over its pages. Another way is to keep the periodical for such times and take an article for the spare half-hour. They thus become great economizers of time. And what is more, they will often save the necessity of going through a book. They give you in far shorter compass certain views which are important for you to know, and which you could know in any other way only by the longer process of reading through an entire volume. Economy of time is no small consideration for a hard-worked clergyman. But economy of money is no less important for many. For the price of a volume you can have the monthly for a year. Look now at the index when the year has closed and see what an amount of reading on a variety of subjects. A yearly issue of the Contemporary or the Nineteenth Century is in itself a little library. To gain the same amount of knowledge without the aid of the monthly would have cost twenty times the sum paid for subscription, to say the least. Not only is economy of time gained, but there is a mental relaxation also secured. The tired brain may find this in a good poem or a good novel, but it is quite as well found in a good periodical. What could more effectually take off the thoughts from the hard subjects of the next Sunday's sermon, or the trying case of that parishioner, than to read one of Kennan's articles on Siberian prisons? Surely this use of the periodical is too patent to need any further comment.

Allusion has already been made to its importance as embodying

discussions of moral and social questions peculiar to the day. How large a part such discussions play in their contents, any inspection of them will show. It seems to be their life. Their literary and historical articles alone would not float them. There is no more hopeful sign for our generation than the fact that so much interest is felt in such questions as divorce, gambling, results of missionary effort, slave trade in Africa as carried on by the Arabs, etc., etc. What renders the presentation of some of these questions so useful to a clergyman is that both sides are written up. A few months ago an article appeared in one of the English Monthlies, showing that "Agnosticism had no possible future as a form of religion. Quickly an article followed on the other side. But it was easy to see that writer number one had the best of it. It is this both-sided discussion of these moral and social questions which constitutes, perhaps, the great use for periodical literature by the clergy. They need to be kept wide awake on all such topics. They need not give much time to the question of marrying a deceased wife's sister. But the pulpit has been, I think, strangely silent on the great and gross evils connected with divorces as granted among us. It can be silent no longer. This is one of the many subjects discussed which illustrate the importance of keeping abreast of the thought of the times. Medieval clergymen are an anachronism.

There is a possible danger connected with the free use of this periodical literature on which it may be desirable to say a word. If reading is too much restricted to it, it will breed superficiality. One occasionally meets a man all whose reading is in this line. He, reads no books-he reads all he can find about books. His knowledge is therefore more or less superficial. The use of periodical literature is largely to stimulate reading of books. The subject is presented in an interesting way on the pages of the monthly. If the reader has time and opportunity, he can go on to further investigation. It need scarcely be said that a well-trained minister would go beyond the reviews, if he meant to be thoroughly posted on any topic. But he will none the less prize the review article which stirred his interest in the subject and made him ask "What are the best books on that subject and how can I get them."

But how can the ministry get access to these periodicals? In large towns or cities there are reading-rooms, doubtless, which offer him access to them. But in smaller towns and parishes the thing is readily and cheaply accomplished by the simple device of a club. Let six, eight or ten parishioners, with the minister at their head, club together and purchase the periodicals they desire. Devise some simple plan, the simpler the better, for their circulation from one subscriber to another. The whole thing is accomplished and you do not have to go to a library-and if the numbers are carefully kept, they

can be sold at the end of the year and the next subscription will be less expensive.

As to what periodicals may be most serviceable to the ministry, it may be difficult to suggest. But of those published in England, two certainly are to be safely commended, the Contemporary and the Nineteenth Century. For years I have been a close reader of these two, and confess I am more and more impressed with their value. Compared with periodicals of their own class in this country, their articles are more thorough, more weighty, and of higher literary execution. It is a matter of congratulation also that their articles are so cosmopolitan. Home Rule has occupied a large space in their columns, but this is hardly a national, much less a local question. Its interests overleap all boundaries of nationality. To name our own periodicals is perhaps a superfluous task. They are too well known to need any comment from me. In all illustrated magazines, American publishers. have distanced foreign competitors. And while some may have had occasion to bemoan the spread of inferior and vicious reading matter, which cheap printing has made so wide, let us be thankful that our periodical literature is, as a class, so wholesome, so elevated and so liberally patronized.

II.

INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS.

BY PROF. ARTHUR S. HOYT, HAMILTON COLLEGE, N. Y. [While not at all agreeing with its conclusions, we admit this article to our pages in the spirit of fairness that our readers may have both sides of the subject before them to guide their decisions. Long and wide observation has convinced us, personally, that there are serious and growing evils, not only to the students but to the community at large, connected with and growing out of the system of "Athletics "as now practised in college and out of college, which challenge attention, not only on the part of college authorities, and parents and guardians who confide their children and wards to their protection and guidance, but of our civil authorities as well; for the example and influence of many of these public athletic contests are singularly demoralizing, and promotive of the gambling spirit now so prevalent in every walk of life.—EDS.]

A WRITER in the April HOMILETIC REVIEW opposes Intercollegiate Athletics for the following reasons: College Faculties are almost unanimous against the practice, yet too cowardly to interfere; the contests are inimical to general physical culture, attended with serious physical results,detrimental to learning and demoralizing to the character of the students-serious charges, that might well "excite earn. est inquiry upon the part of those who are concerned as to the welfare of friends in college."

Can these charges be substantiated from a broad survey of the facts? In no spirit of controversy, but solely in the interests of the truth, the present writer would return a most emphatic No.

And more than this: he is impelled to expression because of the belief that the article referred to, both in its spirit and conclusions, is hostile to the best development of our young men. This is no hasty and sentimental belief; but the growth of experience as a student active in such contests, as a pastor, and finally as a college professor. 1. There will be no dispute among college instructors as to the necessity of the physical training of our young men. The changed conditions of life in our country make physical manhood an essential for large success. And it is true in no sphere as in the pulpit, where vivacity of manner, and range and volume of voice-physical qualities -are so instrumental in impressing the truth. The masters of assemblies are the men of brawn as well as brain and heart. A thin, piping tone, a lassitude of manner indicating low vitality, are almost powerless in swaying the minds of men. "Why do you cross the Atlantic for a Preacher?" was asked of an officer of a metropolitan church. "Because it is almost impossible for us to get an American with strength and endurance sufficient for our great work," was the

answer.

From the age of fifteen to twenty-five is the time to remedy the defects of form, build up the weak places of the body, and store the strength for the years of trying toil. After this period-the college age-exercise can do little more than sustain what has already been gained, and when middle life is reached even this amount of exercise will more often exhaust than restore. Therefore concerning the need and time there can be no question.

Too much time spent in physical training, undue development of the body at the expense of the brain, are not the peculiar dangers that threaten the modern college world. A truer perception would say, too much study induced by the elective system, and under the unhealthful stimulus of the prize and honor system. A little less learning would often be safer than a little less bodily exercise. When John Angell James finished his college course "he was remarkable for nothing but impetuosity, breadth of chest, and such strongly developed pugilistic tendencies as to warrant the blunt estimate of his character, the thick-headed fool is fit for nothing but fighting."" And yet he became one of the noblest and most efficient ministers of the Word in this century. Education with him had not been a process of emasculation, and he swept men with a magnificent physical earnestness.

2. What are the requisites for the best physical training? A set time, a fixed amount, in the open air, and of a kind that shall engage the mind as well as the body.* These conditions are but partly met in the training of the gymnasium; they are fully met only on the athletic field. And it is too often forgotten that the best physical

*Pop. Sc. Monthly. Vol. XXIV., p. 448.