1. It is almost universally conceded that the Fourth Gospel is one of the later books of the New Testament.

2. It is equally indisputable that the author of it was a Christian believer.

3. It follows, as it seems to me, that, if he was not actually acquainted with the three Synoptic Gospels, he was at least familiar with the traditions, oral or written, out of which the synoptics were constructed. To deny this is either to deny the first or the second of the preceding propositions, or else it is to claim that the writer had an entirely original and independent knowledge of Jesus' history.

4. It is almost universally conceded that the author held a very exalted view of Christ. So true is this that it is frequently said, Such a high Christology could not have been developed earlier than in the second century.

5. The third and fourth of these propositions give to the twentieth chapter of the Fourth Gospel a very peculiar interest.

Mark tells us that three women went to the tomb, after the sun had risen, and found a young man in the tomb, arrayed in white, who told them that Jesus was not there. Luke says more than three came at early dawn, and received the message from two men in dazzling apparel. Matthew also says it was at early dawn; but he gives us only two women, and one angel, with an appearance like lightning, and raiment like snow, who descended with a great earthquake, and told the women that Jesus was not there.

The writer of the Fourth Gospel, undoubtedly having the most exalted ideas of Christ, and undoubtedly being familiar with these traditions concerning the resurrection,

writes what we call the twentieth chapter in his little book, precisely as though he meant deliberately to discredit these reports, and strip the event of these factitious angelic glories.

He begins by saying it was very early, while it was yet dark, that Mary went to the tomb alone, and saw it was open. She runs back and gets John and Peter, and they hurry to the garden, and both enter the tomb. They do not find the body, but find the cloths in which it had been wrapped lying in two separate parcels. The writer is very particular to say that both apostles saw, and noted, that the cloths were not together, but in two different places. They return to the city, and Mary remains, weeping; and, looking into the tomb, she sees two angels in white, who ask her why she weeps. She replies, and then suddenly perceives Jesus standing near, who repeats the angels' question in their very words. She thinks him the gardener, until he calls her by name, when she recognizes him.

How can we account for it that this writer, holding Christ in such exalted honor, nevertheless appears so deliberately to set to work to destroy his reader's faith in the Angelophany? It was dark, Mary's eyes were so full of tears that in the dim light she did not recognize Jesus when she had turned and looked at him; yet it was on her testimony alone that the appearance of the angels rested. And what was her testimony? That she had looked out of gray dawn into the dark tomb, and had seen two angels in white, just where Peter and John had but a few moments before entered, and found nothing but two white heaps of graveclothes.

The more carefully I ponder this question, so much the more firmly am I convinced that there is but one rational answer to it; namely, that the writer is the Apostle John himself, striving with conscientious fidelity to narrate things exactly as he saw them and as he understood them. As far as he knew, Mary alone saw Jesus on Sunday morning; but he and the other apostles, except Thomas, saw him that same evening. Jesus was crucified on Friday, died in the afternoon, and in thirty or thirty-six hours afterward had returned to life. I see nothing in that statement incredible, or beyond the power of evidence to substantiate. We

have in this twentieth of John evidence which seems to me conclusive, especially when it is backed up by the patent, undeniable fact that the whole existence of the Christian Church, and its triumphs for nearly twenty centuries, have been based upon the faith of the first generation of Christians that Christ has risen.

Delicate points of nature peer out through the traditions. John must have got hold of Mary's own account of that first Sunday morning, or how else should he have felt that her rapturous "Rabboni!" must be preserved in its Hebrew form? Mark must have got his version from Peter, or why should he have inserted in the angel's message the words "and Peter"? And how powerfully (as our beloved and venerated Dr. Furness showed us, many decades ago) does that "and Peter" testify to the reality of the transaction, and to the identity (intimated by John) of the angel with Jesus himself. He alone would thus remember the penitent apostle. THOMAS HILL.

BARNUM SEEN THROUGH ENGLISH SPECTACLES.

This prince of showmen, from the first to the last of his life, was ever distinguished by his kindness. On Tuesday morning, chatting with his minister, Rev. J. Fisher, of Bridgeport, he said, in his usual cheerful manner, he was ready to obey the death summons as soon as his Master called him. In the afternoon the call came.

Through a long life he was not less anxious for the sobriety, thrift, and virtue of his neighbors than for their entertainment. A lady friend of ours tells us that, some forty years ago, when Mr. Barnum heard of the death of her husband, and that she was left with a large family, he sent her most kindly a handsome present of money, for no other reason than the promptings of his heart to lessen her anxiety. She thanked him by a letter, and told him how providential was his gift. He replied that it was a pleasure to him to have been a second Providence to her. Only a few weeks ago he gave a sum of money to erect in Bridgeport a Natural History Museum, and since the beginning of this year made his church a present of £2,000. We have also had the pleasure of going through the splendid build

It seems only yesterday that he called on us at the Christian Life office, as he had been told by some one that we were in receipt of the American religious papers which he liked to see. This led him to ask us more than once to call at his hotel. Here it was we learned that he had written a paper while in London on the question, "Why I am a Universalist." He favored us with the loan of the manuscript, which he thought might be printed after his death.

We induced him to allow us the possession of the article for the Christian World. It appeared in that journal, and was read by several ministers from their pulpits. It has since been printed as a tract, and in the Japanese language as well as the English, and has secured a circulation, up to the present time, of some sixty thousand copies. It is a very remarkable and clever essay, doing immense credit to Mr. Barnum's head and heart.*

From what we have stated, it may now be seen that Mr. Barnum had a religious side to his nature. He never travelled without his Bible, of which he was a student. He also told us that the little volume of our mutual friend, Dr. Hanson, "Daily Manna," was a cherished companion of his.

When in New York, he usually attended the ministry of our revered countryman, Robert Collyer. "Probably," said he, "you know the anecdote which states the difference between the Universalists and the Unitarians: the former believe God is too good to damn any one, and the latter believe that man is too good to be damned." Mr. Barnum has long been regarded as the prince of showmen. If he could say, as he could, "I have amused and instructed more persons than any other showman who ever lived," he could also say, "I have always given the public a shilling's worth for their shilling, * It was printed in the Unitarian of September, 1890.

He was brimful of wit and fun that seemed to well up from his benevolent soul. He could interest and please the humblest and the highest of social rank. "Would you not like to run the Life Guards?" said an illustrious personage to him one day. "I have no desire," he replied, "to run the Life Guards in the States; but I would give you liberal terms to run your Royal Highness in my country.' Mr. Barnum has been welcomed not only by numbers of the most distinguished and titled among us, but by crowned heads. He was equally at home with the prince and the peasant. By the side of dukes and earls he was capital company. In the drawing-room he was not less the object of interest than in the arena. It was more than once observed of the "greatest show on earth" that Mr. Barnum himself was of greater interest than his show. There must have been real merit in the man, and there was. Think of him, in cultivated Boston, taking in one day £3,000 as entrance money to his entertainment.

His life has not been without some significance and human service. We have all our different gifts for some wise purpose. His appeared to be to please. He said: "Men like to be tickled, and talked into a momentary belief in what they well know to be a delusion. I am here to do it for them." He more than once reminded us of a great, kind-hearted man who drew the children around him to hear some impossible story. They knew it was impossible, and they knew his entertaining qualities, and they were always willing to listen to him; and they knew he was good, and he was. Not only of children, but of others, it is said,

"A little nonsense now and then
Is relished by the best of men."

He set the example, too, of immense industry he was always busy. Disappointments and disasters he knew, like others; but he made them the stepping-stones to his success. He never said "fail." We have heard from him several times since he left London, and there was always something cheerful and bright in his correspond

ence. We are sure no death will be more regretted, among both old and young, in the Great Republic, and elsewhere, than his.London Christian Life.

A HISTORIC CHURCH AND A NOTABLE MEETING.

The oldest church building in Kansas is the church from which the Unitarian society of Lawrence moved about a month ago. A new and more convenient church has been erected, and on Sunday, April 26, the farewell meeting in the old was held. The occasion drew together a large congregation, representing all denominations, but united in interest in the old building on account of its historic associations. This final meeting in the old church, which was so closely connected with the early and exciting history of Kansas, was very appropriately made a time for recalling something of the history of its struggle to become a free State as well as of the history of the church.

In the morning Rev. John S. Brown, the second pastor of the church, who is now eighty-five years of age, preached. His sermon was a review of the progress of religious thought during his lifetime, and was remarkably full of interest.

In the afternoon there were letters read and addresses given, reviving memories of the religious life of the young free state community. The addresses were by Capt. J. G. Haskell, Gov. Robinson, Rev. W. C. Tenney, Mr. Alfred Whitman, and Mr. C. L. Edwards. A letter from Mrs. Gov. Robinson was read by the chairman, recalling the Sunday afternoon meetings held at their house on Mount Oread (now a part of the city of Lawrence) in 1855, the laying of the corner-stone of the church, and the rejoicings over the building.

The chairman also read a letter from Rev. E. Nute, the first pastor of the church. Mr. Nute said:

"My mind reverts to that day, nearly

thirty-four years ago, when the first meeting for public worship was held within these then rude, unfinished walls. Compared with the average occupancy of meetinghouses, it is but a short time; but, measured by the long series of stirring and tragic events and the changes in the progress of your historic city, it seems more like a rounded century. It is only the period of an average generation; yet, taking into view the advance that has been made in the march of civilization, is it too much to say that the changes wrought have been greater than that of centuries that preceded?

"Your primitive house of worship stands the most conspicuous, if not absolutely the sole, relic of the olden time.

"May it long remain as the eloquent monument and reminder of those days when, amid heroic strife and bloodshed, perils and privations, which to-day are more like hid eous dreams than sober realities, these walls were reared. Here, within sight of this edifice, were enacted the opening scenes of the great struggle on which hung the destinies of our nation. Here began the bloody contest which led to the overthrow of the giant evil which, had it continued for another generation, might have destroyed the Union, and established a republic with slavery for its chief corner-stone.

"It may not be too presumptuous to assert that the pioneer churches of Lawrence, like those of the Pilgrims and Puritans of New England, were the ark of safety for our country; that they cast the turning weight into the scale when the interests of the nation and of human civilization hung wavering in the balance. Truly, you have abundant cause for thanksgiving in the memories of the past and powerful incitements to renewed and hopeful endeavor."

The history of the building as the home of the first free school in Kansas was then given by Mr. C. L. Edwards, who came to Lawrence in 1856, was chorister and superintendent of the union Sunday-school, which was held in the church, and principal of the Quincy High School and Lawrence University, which for a time held their sessions in its basement.

The annals of the early churches in Lawrence were read, and those of the Unitarian church were as follows:

"The Unitarians, while not the first to

occupy the field for church work, were the first to complete a permanent house of worship. About May, 1855, Rev. E. Nute arrived here, and preached his first sermon in the open air on Mount Oread, May 28. The Herald of Freedom of June 9, speaking of Mr. Nute's meeting, said: 'Mr. Nute comes among us as a missionary from the American Unitarian Association. He is a gentleman of classical education, a very pleasant speaker, and, withal, we believe, a very worthy man.'

"Mr. Nute continued these meetings on Mount Oread, Sunday afternoons, during the summer and fall of 1855. On his return from a visit East in August, he called a meeting of those interested in building a church, and October 13 announced that funds had been raised for the erection of a Unitarian church, forty by sixty feet on the ground, with basement and gallery. The result of this movement was the erection of this church building which you have occupied more than thirty years.

"The Unitarians of Boston at that time evidently seemed to think that a town clock and bell were a necessary appendage to a church building, and so they provided one for this church. It was shipped, I believe, by the way of New Orleans, and for some reason did not reach its place of destination for three or four years, and, when it did arrive, was found to be damaged and some parts of it lost; and so it was sent to the machine-shop for repairs. They found, when the bell and clock arrived, that they had no place to put it in; and so it was placed, after being repaired, in the upper part of the machine-shop, and its striking parts were connected with the steam-whistle. For a long time the steam-whistle took the place of the bell, and struck the hours of the day. Later the city came to your aid, and furnished funds for the completion of the tower, where the clock and bell were placed, which for nearly thirty years have counted the time and called the people to work.

"A few months ago they were removed to our new high school building; and to-day you leave this old church, with all its sacred memories, for your new home which you have provided. May peace and prosperity attend you."

Capt. J. G. Haskell, one of the board of

trustees when the building was finished, said, with reference to this bell and its givers: "On that bell the donors placed the inscription, Proclaim liberty, '-a motto significant for the Boston Unitarians of their progressive spirit in all things. I was then living in Boston, and attended the services of Theodore Parker, Freeman Clarke, Starr King, and E. E. Hale. Their four churches were the centre from which the effective influence for liberty proceeded. It was they who inspired the Emigrant Aid Society. Those men, and they alone, dared to give Kansas preludes in their services, not every Sunday, but frequently. Their spirit is a precious heritage to you and to me. That spirit is stamped in the bronze letters of the old bell, 'Proclaim liberty.' Did you ever consider what it meant that there was no Unitarian church in the South? They had not the spirit of liberty there. They were afraid of liberty in religion as well as in politics.

"The men who sent that bell trusted in the gifts of God. They were willing to trust the soul of man in every direction. They meant liberty of belief, but not that only. With them creed and deed were one. They meant liberty of person, liberty to humanity, a State without a king as well as a church without a bishop,-that was the theory of Congregationalism. For remember that Unitarianism is only a younger and more radical brother of Congregationalism.

"And they went at it in the right spirit. They put the free school in the basement of the church: they meant liberty of thought, and knew that liberty of conscience could come only from liberty of thought. church stood here in the early times as Faneuil Hall stands on State Street,-the rallying-place and bulwark of liberty.

This

"Liberty to man!'-that was what the old bell was taught to say; dare to trust

man.

"I bespeak for you in your new church the spirit that dwelt in the donors of the bell, liberty, better too loose than too tight, but liberty; and I wish you Godspeed, and believe that the men who gave the bell will be glad they gave it if you keep on in their spirit."

What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God?

DEDICATION OF THE NEW CHURCH IN LAWRENCE.

The Unitarian society in Lawrence, Kan., has long needed a new house of worship more comfortable and better located than the old. That want is met at last. On May 13 a pretty and homelike new church, centrally situated in the town, was dedicated, to the great joy of the faithful little Unitarian band.

On the preceding evening a meeting was held in the new room, with addresses by the pastor, Rev. C. G. Howland, and the Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, and Congregational ministers of the city, and the Jewish rabbi.

At the dedication there was an original hymn composed for the occasion by Mr. Howland. Scripture was read by Rev. J. E. Roberts of Kansas City. The opening prayer was offered by Rev. S. A. Eliot of Denver. The keys of the Building Committee were formally presented to the society by Prof. W. H. Carruth, Col. O. E. Learnard responding. Addresses were made by Mr. B. W. Woodward, Judge Thacher, Chancellor Snow of the University of Kansas, Prof. J. H. Canfield, and Rev. T. B. Forbush. The prayer of dedication was offered

by Rev. E. Powell. The minister and people united in the following noble and uplifting dedicatory sentences, prepared by Mr. Howland::

"Minister.-In all times and in every land the children of men have erected altars and built temples and sought the Eternal God. In obedience to this high behest of our common nature, we have built this house, that we may come here and offer our worship to him. What though for him who filleth heaven and earth there can be no dwelling made with hands, what though his way is in the deep and his knowledge too wonderful for us, and before him we are as children that cannot speak, yet, touched by the altar's living glow, we learn, as an infant, to lisp his name. To God, the supremely Holy, the First and the Last, let us dedicate this house.

"People.-Here may we seek and find that Presence which is over all and in all, holy and helpful forevermore. Blessed be the temple hallowed by his name. Pray for peace within its walls, peace to young and old that enter here, peace to every soul abiding herein.

"Minister. Let us dedicate this church to the divine law of righteousness, truth, and love.

"People.-To that law of righteousness which man did not make and cannot change; to that spirit of truth without which religion itself is but an empty word; and that love which suffereth long and is kind, that thinketh no evil, that envieth not, that is not easily provoked, that rejoiceth in the truth, that endureth all things, and hopeth