Its If we were to tarry for a moment longer over the historic aspect of this church, we would see that it is worthy of much praise, and that it can make a valid claim to the loyalty of its adherents. Its influence in the Anglo-Saxon civilization has been very great. As an historic faith, it is doubtful if there is one which has been grander. influence upon character can be known by the great names which are allied with it. It has always striven to make the moral law the measure of all conduct. It has inculcated fearlessness and taught that the conviction must become a deed. Its history is all ablaze with the names of men who were devoid of fear, and who with a certain ironlike strength have battled for what seemed to them to be the cause of God on earth. It has stood unmistakably for freedom and popular government, both in church and state. The Waldenses were the free men of their day. In Switzerland the Republic and the Presbytery were born in the same period. The Hollanders, under the guidance of William the Silent, performed deeds of heroism in behalf of freedom against tyranny, which makes them sublime. The French Huguenots, the Scotch Covenanters, and the English Puritans, who, if they had not the Presbyterian form of government, had the Presbyterian form of doctrine, have all been undaunted champions of liberty among men. Bancroft says that the modern impulse to republican liberty in this country came from Geneva with its Presbyterian theology. There are those who think that the Declaration of Independence was partially copied from the Mecklenburg Declaration, which was the first public voice in favor of independence. It was made more than a year before the Philadelphia Declaration, and, of the twenty-seven delegates who signed it, nine were ruling elders of the Presbyterian church, and one was a Presbyterian minister. The representative form of government, running from the county to the state, and from the state to the general government, with a certain self-governing power in each, but forming a nation, is too similar to the session and the Presbytery and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church to be mere accident. there is to be ecclesiastical government at all, it would seem that the Presbyterian form, combining as it does the freedom of If the individual and centralized authority, would be the most agreeable to Americans. There can be no doubt of the historic attitude of this church toward education. The Calvinists of France sustained three great schools. The Huguenots were the best educated people in the kingdom. The peasantry of Scotland was raised far above that of any other European country by the unusual education which the parish schools afforded. The school system of New England, founded by Calvinistic influences, opened a new era in the world. If it is said that their doctrine is fatal to all effort, the logic of events is sufficient answer to the charge. If it is said that their doctrine of fatalism relieves of all personal responsibility and tends to moral indifference, the biography of their heroes is a complete refutation of such argument. If they were sometimes arrogant over the fact of their election, they were always careful to make the divine decree and the human act correspond. Their deeds were of such character as to approve the wisdom of God in choosing them. If they were elected, it was not that they might become careless in thought and lax in deed. This election placed them under obligation. God expected great things of them, and they were determined not to disappoint him. And so always they are found in their place meeting the case squarely; asking no odds, doing for their cause, which they thought was God's cause, and, if need be, dying for it. In the convention, on a hundred battle-fields, in the wilderness, in prison, in the flames, they may be seen undismayed, testifying their allegiance to their doctrines; upheld by a steady trust in the all-powerful sovereignty of God; winning the admiration even of their enemies, when they could not win their mercy; earning praise from historians who despise their doctrines. It is not strange that with such a history back of them there should be many now who look upon their traditions as a sacred heritage, which they must defend to the very last against all encroachments of the modern spirit, which is hostile to so many things once accounted sacred. It is not strange that the creed, which to us seems so distorted and such a travesty of the nature of man and of God's methods of dealing with the world, should to them seem the sum of all excellence, -to be a transcript of the very innermost purpose of God. What to us is only at best a moon-a worn-out world, upon which no life can be found, what light it has being borrowed, a reflection of more refulgent worlds-is to many a sincere heart a central star, capable of nourishing life and flinging its beams far into outlying space of darkness. What we may see as total blackness, to them only appears as spots upon the sun. Thus far, as must needs be if we are faithful to history and event, our words have been largely loaded with praise. But, if we are faithful to the present as well as the past, if we believe that God is in the new fact as well as in the old, we must move forward in a more qualified way. On his island the old mystic heard a voice saying of the church: "I know thy works and faith and patience. Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee." A similar voice may be heard in this age. "To the Presbyterian church in America write: I know thy past, thy bravery, thy freedom, thy integrity, thy zeal. Notwith standing, I have some things against thee. Thou hast refused to flow along in the channels which Providence has cut through this century. Thou art backward-looking, and art hindering the coming of the divine kingdom of the future. Thou art not a friend of science; thou despisest reason. Man is much nobler than thou thinkest. God is not the cruel tyrant that thou hast pictured him. The future is not a place of hopeless misery for all except a few, as thy doctrines teach. Behold, I give thee space to repent. If thou repentest, I will give thee new power over the nations of the earth. Thou shalt go on from strength to strength, and the star of the morning shall be thy guide. He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the church." This voice came to the church in other places, and was partially heeded. It came to the churches of France and Holland and Switzerland, and they left behind them all those doctrines which degrade man and dishonor God. It came to the Presbyterians in Scotland, and caused a change of front. The volume of "Scotch Sermons" is much nearer Channing than it is Calvin. The established church changed its terms of subscription to the creed. The Free church has heard the voice, and obeyed. The United Presbyterians openly declare that they do not believe certain doctrines of the creed. In England a new confession has been made. Even the Presbyterians of far-away Japan have revised the doctrines. Now, at last, the Spirit is speaking to the Presbyterian church in America. Al Prophecy is a form of speech which mortals ought to use sparingly. It is very easy to make mistakes, when so engaged. But the indications all seem to point in the direction of a theological crisis. We seem to be on the verge of a readjustment. It, of course, cannot be brought about without much more debate. Zeal can easily become anger; and anger can pass into hatred. ready personalities and sarcastic replies are appearing. Friends will become enemies. Both sides in the great struggle are deeply in earnest. A divided church is one of the possibilities in the issue involved. It is not a war between the world and the church; it is not a war between atheism and faith. All the parties are in the church and all are believers in God. It is a strange condition of affairs, when the Confession of Faith has to be defended against its friends. The arguments which are used against it are not being urged by Mr. Ingersoll nor by the disciples of the late Mr. Bradlaugh, but by Doctors of Divinity, who have solemnly affirmed that they believe it and will uphold it. Dr. Briggs solemnly subscribes to it, and then denies three of its cardinal principles. It teaches that the Bible is the sole revealer of God: he maintains that God also has been found by reason. It teaches that the Bible is infallible: he teaches that it has many errors in it. It teaches that "the souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory": he teaches that sanctification goes on after death. The next few months will decide whether the creed will bend to meet these views of the learned professor, or he will be made to bend to meet them, or else be cast wholly outside of the church. In the past the method has been to, as far as possible, break the spirit of the heretic and then, with the stamp of the church's disapproval upon him, cast him forth into the world, making him an exiled Ishmaelite for the rest of his days. It may be we are on the verge of the time when this order will be reversed, -the doctrine will be broken and cast out and the heretic retained. As re-enforcing this rational hope, hear these words from an old Presbyterian clergyman:— "It is evident that a change has taken place in the general tone and feeling of the church, which demands some readjustment of the doctrinal statements that were made by the Calvinists of the seventeenth century, in the midst of the uncharitable and bitter controversies of that less enlightened period. The creeds, or portions of the creeds, made from unscholarly interpretations and doubtful expositions, should be left to the history of the past. And if, as some fear, one revision should be followed by another, let it be so, if the advancing church shall demand it. Let the creed faithfully express the doctrines actually held by the living church, and not the abandoned dogmas of buried ages." These are words not of an atheist, but of a Presbyterian. They are not the words of destruction, but of upbuilding and strengthening the temple of God and man. This gray-haired old saint is uttering words which not only adorn the closing days of his long and noble life, but which become the expression of a million hearts who look still to the church as one of the great agents whose mighty task is to lift the earth toward the sky. They are the confession that each age has its work to do. If it have more light, it has an increase of obligation. As the men of science and art and government all hasten to gather up what the age can bring them, so should the men of religion be as wise. Coming to the seashore after a storm has swept the waves far up the beach, many new and beautiful shells can be found sprinkling the beach. The thoughtful traveller walking there will be impressed by the majesty and the riches which the sea contains. For half a century a storm has been sweeping over the sea which lies all around us. Never have the waves of thought risen so high within the memory of man. Walking there now, we are all dull if we are not impressed by the majesty of the ocean and the forces which it obeys; ignorant, if we do not know what riches have been cast at our feet; foolish, if we do not gather these treasures of science and learning and art, fairer and more valuable than any pearls which the moaning sea ever cast upon its yellow sands, and with them adorn anew the temple of religion. When new Germany began to manifest itself, many things combined to arrest its progress. But there came some men to the front whom opposition only made strong. When the great Chancellor was told that directly in the path which he had chosen were all the sacred traditions of European diplomacy, which could not be overcome and which could not be overpassed, it is told that his only reply was a quiet laugh. He knew his strength and that of those who were with him. Nay, he knew the resistless strength of those elemental spiritual forces which Providence had set loose like a tempest in the nineteenth century, which would finally impel all things in one direction. These forces are now at work here in the great Presbyterian church. Many sacred traditions are in the way, trying to block the path along which they are sweeping. When reminded of this, our friends in that church, who are dreaming and planning a new era for their church and the world, if they have like confidence in the strength of these mighty forces and see the way they are trending, may indulge in quiet laughter in the face of all obstacles. In Europe to-day are a few noble souls who, while they may love the great past for what it has been, love more the great present for what it is, and the mighty future for what it shall be, and amid the ruin which is overtaking the old dynasties can see rising slowly the foundations of better governments, in which man shall come forth in greater freedom and greater majesty. So our friends may see out of the past a new future emerging. If they are constant and true to the high purpose which seems to have found a lodgment in their hearts, do not temporize, do not compromise, but hold on a high and sustained course, they will prevail in the end. Their beloved church will justify its existence. Rich in its history, it will be richer and more glorious in the coming days. Those who labor for it will find that they are in league with Providence. Though they may receive the hatred of men to-day and be called destroyers of religion, to-morrow will hail them as the builders and preservers of the true altars of worship. If God will, in the great quiet hereafter, when all things assume their true place and proportion, they may cheer themselves with the thought that during these troublous earth-days they did what they could to upbuild the church whose beams are the earth, whose dome is the spangled sky, whose Bible is the laws of the universe, whose liturgy is woven out of the prayers and hymns, out of the love and wonder which, like the mists from the ocean, have risen from the universal heart, -the Church of Man and of God. Detroit, Mich. REED STUART. THE EARTH-CHILD'S PRAYER. O mother earth, I lean my head Oh, thou art filled with light and warmth, And all thy garments' folds breathe balm. And thou art good! I feel thee good To thee I come when vexed with care, I am thy child: thy life is mine, F. O. EGLESTON. PUBLIC PURITY: ITS PERILS; ITS DEFENCE. There are at present in this country conditions and influences that are unfavorable to public purity, and therefore to public safety. Democracy sets free, in a new degree, the bad as well as the good. This is a source of constant danger. Then during the past fifty years we have had an enormous infusion of foreign elements into our population, bringing with them the social ideas and personal principles of their former home, and these seldom of so wholesome a moral quality as those we inherit from our English ancestry. But especially the sudden congestion of our population in these closely packed communities, the cities, is having, necessarily, a very profound, if partly a temporary, effect on all social questions. Just at present we can but note with pain, offence, and anxiety tokens of a demoralization of taste and principle, which, if it were to go on, must be deleterious to the point of destruction. That it chiefly, at present, pervades the lower strata of our population, the less educated classes, we must hope. But there is no such barrier between classes as shall confine it there; and its influence is already exerted, beyond question, upon all, and especially upon our youth. If it were radical, we should have to judge that a real laxity of morals had set in among us. This is not yet the case, we know. But that a degree of tolerance is just now exercised toward public offences against decency is an obvious fact; and it is certain that such tolerance is an insidious subjective influence for evil, demoralizing those who indulge it, as its overt results in several most important departments of life are most pernicious. The chief points at which we see the effects of this vicious tolerance are obvious. The most serious is the character of our newspapers. There are honorable exceptions in every city, and some in this. But the general standard of newspaper morals is such as to constitute a standing reproach to our communities and a menace to our future. It is not merely that our common papers teem with accounts of crimes, horrors, vicious facts of all sorts: it is that these things are treated with levity, and in such a manner as to excite an unhealthy, prurient interest in vice and crime. No incident of life is too depraved or too remote from all genuine interest to the public at large to be glaringly reflected in these "abstracts and chronicles of the time." They search every most unwholesome corner of society, wantonly to drag to light, and expose before the community, indiscriminately, all that is vile, unhallowed, and debauching. Some of them are almost unblushing panders to vice. Papers are sold on our streets openly which are corrupt in their whole intention, depraving in their whole influence. But not only these almost confessed ministers of corruption, but many which make a pretence to respectability, whose publishers and editors would bristle with offence if placed in the same category with the others I have referred to, are stuffed with material intellectually most vulgar, and alike debasing to taste and injurious to fine morality. Especially, and most unfortunately, is that true of that still modern class of papers, the Sunday ones. Scan the contents of the next you take up; see how vulgar, half impure, they largely are; how full of the lowest concerns of society; how little calculated to minister to good taste, good morals, useful instruction, elevation of purpose, improvement of social life; how it hovers constantly about the border-land of vice, and is filled with an atmosphere of low suggestion. I noted the advertisement of one of the leading ones of this city yesterday. I would not here repeat its topics. I dare say that this paper lies already on some of your tables. I ask you conscientiously to scan its contents, and to confess to yourselves what sort of an influence such a paper is exerting, what principles it ministers to. How the men who make the papers can consent to make them such as they are, is not less a mystery and wonder than that others can keep grogshops. I am astonished at the indifference or thoughtlessness of the heads of families who can tolerate in their homes agencies so noxious. They would not knowingly, I presume, invite men of well-known vicious or vulgar character; but they bring in all the influences such men could exert when they lay on the home table any one of a great number of flourishing papers. It is this tolerance, friends, I would point out, which is the dangerous thing for us. The forces for good, to hold their own against the bad ones, need at least be in earnest, united, and indeed aggressive. In large measure, the respectable elements in our society ignore, or do not care for, these things which make for evil, which are surely, somewhere, leaving their mark on the character of the generation which is to follow us. And what is true of our newspapers is true very extensively of our general literature. We have come much under the influence of foreign schools of literature, which are themselves permeated with debasing influences. It seems to be held by some, contrary to the old maxim, that, if you can give a thing a name, you justify it. In literature, what is called "realism" attempts to justify its existence by the mere fidelity and technical skill with which it depicts the incidents of social life. But there are many of those incidents which are not justly to be depicted for the contemplation of society generally. A similar tolerance, the spirit of which is imbibed largely abroad, among people of distinctly lower moral tone than ours has yet become, is beginning to appear in respect to the products of art. The distinctions which have to be drawn here are delicate, but they are perfectly obvious and recognizable. It is a question almost, if not quite always, of treatment, of spirit, of intention. Of the things which God has made, none is essentially more lovely and pure than the human form. It has been the legitimate subject of art since art began. A man commits a crime against it when he debases its portraiture to be the minister of unworthy sentiments and emotions. But its representations may be made such as elevate and refine or debase and corrupt. I think they are always the latter when they do not subserve some idealistic purpose, the presentation of some ideal truth. But a school has arisen in recent years which absolves itself from all idealistic limitations, and revels in what is merely physi cal and sensual. Again, the term "realism" is brought for |