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of his moral and spiritual excellence. But let us see that we do not allow ourselves to admire for a wrong reason, even when our admiration may be resting on the right man. Though we may on no account admire mere wealth, we ought to admire heartily the grace which is frequently given to the wealthy Christian, and to praise God for raising up faithful witnesses of this class. Yes, while we give a high place in our inmost hearts to the martyr whom the world crowns with thorns-the courageous man, who, in front of gibbet or of stake, has faithfully confessed his Lord-let us accord at least an equal place to the other, and sometimes the nobler martyr-the martyr whom the world attempts to crown with roses; who, amid all the luxuries of life, finds little sweetness in them compared with what he finds in the manna of the Word; who, while others bow the knee to him, bends his own in lowliest humility before the only King, and who also bows his head meekly before the least of all the little ones, in whom he recognises the children of that King. It is comparatively an easy thing to forsake the world when it drives us out, but it needs more grace to rebuke the world when it is smiling its sweetest; to condemn the world when it fawns and flatters us; to break with the world, like Moses, when it presents us with its all, and by all our acts to declare plainly that, smitten with the love of another country, the glory of the world has ceased to be glorious in our eyes. Yes, such men we admire with all our powers of admiration; while, beside them, but placed not a hair'sbreadth above them, we honour also the other martyr, the heroic man who witnessed for his Saviour in the flames. In these days, and in this land, few of us have opportunity to attain the blessed martyr's death; but God gives every unit of us ample opportunity for living, in one or other of its many forms, the equally noble martyr-life.

It is never to the money itself, therefore, but to the faithful grace displayed in the proper use of it, that the Christian is to accord his admiration. A remark like this seems so very trite, that it is apt to be despised as a mere truism. And yet, alas! though our heads be so well instructed that we can treat such a statement as the stalest of commonplaces, our hearts are so far behind our heads, that practically we often live as if the truism were not really true. When Christ was on the earth, he once sat down over against the Temple treasury, and noted the gifts which were dropped into it. Wealthy donors cast in their wealthy offerings as they passed; but not one of these awoke on that solemn face the faintest sign of gracious approbation. The gentle features retained their expression, as if the face had been cut in marble. At last a gift was cast into the box which, all at once, kindled the soft eyes with a strange radiance, and covered the sorrowful face with a pleased smile. And what sort of gift was it which had power in this way to stir the soul of the Man of Sorrows? It was the very poorest offering of the very poorest of widows; possibly the paltriest, in its money value, of

all the gifts that had been given that day. But a gift of love has quite another value besides that which a banker assigns it, when it lies on his counter; and in its spiritual excellence this poor widow's poor gift stood quite apart from all its companion-gifts-it was perfectly unique. Her gift included herself and her worldly all; she gave her entire living, and her whole heart. Now, though Christ is no longer on earth, his treasury still is; and his Church is here to represent him in visible presence. Donors are still pouring in their

gifts, and many of these are still, as formerly, very handsome. But who now is happy enough to win the Church's commendation? Alas! so imperfectly does she enter into the spirit of her Lord, that she reserves the most of her smiles for that class of gifts which he regarded with perfect apathy-the large gift, which, after all, may be but a small percentage out of a much larger superfluity. As for the poor widow's mite, it is too often overlooked ;-no, not quite overlooked; for, unseen, the Lord still sits beside his treasury, still notes the offerings, and shall by-and-by adjust more righteously the present ill-distributed approval. What comfort may be gathered from this story by the godly poor! What a model does it furnish to the godly rich, who will need generally to multiply their offerings manifold, ere they attain to the same high approval! And what a lesson does it give us all in the proper exercise of this responsible talent of admiration!

Even when the object of admiration is altogether worthy of it-I speak chiefly of mental and moral qualities-the inexperienced are in danger of making a mistake in the drawing of practical inferences, a mistake which is often productive of the most melancholy results. Seeing a man to be possessed of one quality in a very eminent degree, the groundless inference is hastily drawn, that he will equally excel his fellows in other respects; and hence he is rashly intrusted with responsibilities which, it may be, he is more than usually incompetent to discharge. It would, in most cases, be a much safer inference to argue the other way, and to say, Since this man so manifestly excels on one side, he is sure to have some compensating deficiency on another. As the proverb says-" A long tongue and a short hand." The records of statesmanship, of literature, and of general social life, are filled with illustrations of this. Let France admire if she will, and let her profit if she can, by the gushing sentimentalisms of her Lamartine; but let her by no means be tempted to make him her president: let Rome applaud the matchless oratory of her Cicero, or accept instruction from his pen, but let her choose some one with a stiffer tongue to be her consul. It is of immense practical importance to every one of us that we limit our admiration to the actual excellence which the admired man possesses, and that we refrain from crediting him with qualities which he has not, and perhaps could not possibly have.

As one instance of the application of this principle, we may refer to the present unhappy janglings between

scientific men and theologians. Several of our leading men of science take up a hostile attitude towards revealed truth; and young inexperienced thinkers are in danger of according a respect to these men's words, when they speak of divine things, somewhat commensurate with the admiration which is universally accorded to them as men of science. Now this is a complete mistake; and to the youthful admirer of these men it may be a fatal one. Masters in their own department of science, these men,-the Tyndalls, and Huxleys, and *Owens of the day,—are scarcely even babes in theology; and their utter incompetency to handle successfully the one set of truths arises out of the very qualities which have given them such eminence in the other. They have succeeded so wonderfully in their investigation of natural phenomena, simply because they have so devotedly and so exclusively confined their attention to such subjects; but this same exclusive addictedness to the natural, with its consequent neglect of the supernatural, has so narrowed their mental range that their minds cannot work at all out of the familiar groove. The methods of ascertaining spiritual and scientific truth are so entirely distinct, that exclusive devotedness to either for a lifetime will render any man unfit to deal with the other. So far, then, from receiving the dicta of purely scientific men on questions connected with theology with that reverent regard which one would accord to the scientific statements of the same men, I should look upon their ability to investigate such extraprofessional questions as being greatly less than that of an average intelligent working-man. The absurd proposal recently made by some of them, to subject supernatural phenomena to scientific tests smells most rankly of the shop, and indicates how completely their allengrossing devotedness to physical science has miseducated them, has unfitted them for handling in a proper spirit alien and loftier subjects.

We admire the patient research of scientific men, and accept their guidance in their own peculiar walk; we admire still more heartily the spiritual attainments of the lowly and gracious Christian, familiar with his Bible, nowhere so much at home as in his closet, and ever walking Enoch-like with God: but, just as we would assign no value whatever to the opinion of this latter, on questions which fall to be solved, not by the Bible, but by the spectroscope, so we would assign no value to the opinion of the purely scientific man on questions which are to be satisfactorily solved, not by a self-reliant science, but by a reverent faith. The two regions of truth are quite distinct, let them be kept distinct; and let the evidence for any alleged fact be examined in accordance with its own principles. This modest course, however, is what the savants referred to scorn to take. They are the people, and wisdom shall die with them. As haughtily as ever religious fanatic refused to examine with care the proper evidence for a scientific finding, they on their part refuse to examine in a becoming spirit the peculiar evidence for the super

| natural. They are in their own way as bigoted as a Paul Cullen, as one-sided, as self-conceited; and with all their boast of reason, they are quite as unreasonable. Admiration may seem to the thoughtless to be a very slight thing; and the influence which it may have in forming the popular judgment, and thereby in giving ultimate shape to the conduct of a whole people, is very apt to be overlooked; but it is nevertheless of tremendous importance. What a noble and stirring episode in Jewish history is the story of the Maccabees! There is scarcely a grander narrative of courageous devotedness to be found in the preceding annals of that remarkable people; and we can easily understand that this story of Judas and his fellows could have been told only of men whose prior national history had been such as that of Israel. Had it not been for the predecessors of Judas, and had it not been for the national admiration accorded to them for centuries, Judas himself would scarcely have been possible. And how many must have had their zeal quickened in after ages by the narrative of these courageous men; so that in this way they continued to live for centuries in their influence upon their people. But this popular admiration had an unfavourable as well as a favourable aspect. It must have gone far to form, and to foster, the popular ideal which the Jews came to cherish of the character and work of their expected Messiah. It led them to think of the promised Deliverer as being similar in character, though operating on a grander scale to think of the coming Christ, in short, as being just another Maccabee, only more gigantic. And thus the national admiration of Judas and his fellows came to be one of the elements which worked together to produce this dreadful issue,-that when Christ came to his own, his own received him not, but rejected him with scorn, and nailed him to the cross. It awakens the gravest reflections, when one connects in this way the national admiration of a hero with the nation's greatest crime; and remembering that we too are as fallible as they, we feel that we need to put our admiration, and all else, under the guidance of a wisdom that is higher than our own.

We have not time to dwell on the way in which we ought to express our admiration. By all means let us manifest our high approval of the good, not in loud and windy sentimentalisms, but, so far as is possible, by patient imitation of it. This is the highest style of praise. Every noble act, every devoted worker, calls to us through our very approval of him, "Go thou and do likewise." If we yield to the appeal, our admiration of the good shall not only go to encourage the good man, but shall help to make us partakers of his goodness; while, if we content ourselves with idle words of praise, the unfruitful admiration will become sentimental and insincere; it will tend to slacken the whole of our own moral machinery, and to cast it out of gear.

It is bad policy, as well as culpable vanity, to lay traps in order to catch admiration for ourselves. If we strive rather to cultivate goodness, content with the honour

which cometli from God alone, man's approval shall be sure to follow us sooner or later. But this morbid craving for admiration will, if indulged, unspeakably debase ourselves; and the more we strive to win it, the less likely shall we be to succeed. Indeed, if a man be eager enough, his very eagerness will secure him, not admiration, but contempt. Even though the vanity which prompts these efforts should not be discovered-a very improbable contingency, indeed-his efforts to procure admiration will scarcely fail to secure the opposite. For, in proportion to the expectations of excellence which he leads his fellows to cherish will be the un

avoidable recoil, when, on fuller knowledge, they discover that he lacks the excellences which he led them to expect. In this case they will naturally avenge themselves for the disappointment; and he has himself to blame, if he now receive a degree of respect as much below his real merits as the respect which he desired to receive was above these merits. Humility is the surest way to honour, though it does not always seem to be the shortest; while pride as certainly leads to contempt and to utter destruction. Every one that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."

J. D.

IMPRESSIONS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE AND WORK IN AMERICA.
BY PROFESSOR J. L. PORTER, AUTHOR OF "THE GIANT CITIES OF BASHIAN," ETC.

PHILADELPHIA.

HE warm grasp and cordial greeting I | he is always there, stimulating by his enthusiasm received from George Hay Stuart, as and inspiring by his eloquence.

I set my foot for the first time on the platform of the railway depôt in Philadelphia, made me almost forget that the broad Atlantic separated me from home. No man in the United States is more widely known, or more universally respected, than Mr. Stuart; and no man has more deeply at heart the best interests of the land of his adoption. Connected officially with one of the smallest and most exclusive of the Protestant sects, and clinging to it conscientiously, in spite of ill-judged ecclesiastical censure-almost amounting to persecution-no man in any Church has broader sympathies with universal Christendom. His work in the Christian Commission, when, with a well-organized band of helpers, he carried material succour and spiritual consolation to the wounded and dying on the battle-fields of the South, and to the maimed and sick in the hospitals, has won for him a place and a memorial in the first rank of Christian heroes. And this is only a part of his work-a part which the fame of a mighty war threw out into bolder relief, and made visible to all the world. The best energies of his life, George Stuart has devoted to the cause of humanity. In every region of the States where a great enterprise is to be initiated on behalf of missions, Sunday schools, the coloured races, the Indian tribes, or other schemes of philanthropy,

Under the kind and skilful guidance of such a man, I had ample opportunity, brief though my stay was, of seeing Christian life and work in Philadelphia.

I arrived on Saturday, and Mr. Stuart had only returned the day before from a Sundayschool convention at Chicago; yet all arrangements had been made for me. On Sunday I was to preach in Calvary Church for Dr. Humphrey, Moderator of the General Assembly, in the morning; give an address at the communion in Dr. Wylie's church in the afternoon; and preach for him in the evening-visiting some schools in the interval. On Monday I was to address the united weekly meeting of the ministers of Philadelphia; on Tuesday give a lecture on Palestine ; and on Wednesday deliver a missionary address in Dr. Boardman's church. The programme was formidable; and when filled up with sundry speeches in the schools and colleges I visited, afforded ample employment for a four days' sojourn. Work, however unremitting, enthusiastic work-is the genius of Americans, and the source of success both in Church and State, and I did not shrink, while enjoying their generous hospitality, from taking my full share.

When going to Calvary Church on Sunday morning, Mr. Stuart led me, in passing, into his own, which happened to be on our way. It was

communion Sabbath, and a large body of the people had already assembled in the lecture-hall. He asked me to address them; and I never saw a congregation, to all outward appearance, more deeply impressed with a sense of their duty and solemn responsibility in the prospect of sitting down at the Lord's table.

Calvary Church is a fair type of the ecclesiastical buildings which are now springing up with such wondrous rapidity in the various cities of the United States; and it struck me as far in advance of the generality of churches in this country-I mean, of course, in its adaptation to the requirements of Protestant worship. It is not a miniature cathedral, built as if on purpose to show how closely a modern architect can imitate a medieval structure, and how entirely he can forget, in doing so, the wants of a Christian congregation. It is a building so planned that the preacher can address with ease the whole audience, and the audience can hear distinctly what he says to them. It seems to me that there can be no piety in a massive Gothic pillar when it hides the face of Christ's minister; and there can be no righteousness in a Gothic roof when it prevents a congregation from hearing the gospel message. I may be wrong; but I think it is quite possible for a church to be made beautiful, without at the same time being made useless. Architectural skill, in my opinion, is shown, not so much in the elegant proportions and grand contour of an edifice, as in its perfect suitableness to the purposes for which it was designed. The Christian people of America are adopting this view. They are throwing aside, as unworthy the enlightenment of this nineteenth century, that architectural sacerdotalism, if I may so call it, which has made so many recently erected churches in Britain-and among them not a few belonging to Presbyterians-almost useless for the purposes of rational worship. They know, and they have come to act upon the knowledge, that the service of God in the sanctuary is a service of the intellect and heart, and not of mere ritual and form. They feel that God is a spirit, and they therefore build their churches in such a way that they can worship him in spirit and in truth. Yet, while such is the case, there is nothing to offend the eye or shock the

most refined taste. There is an appropriateness and a beauty in design and equipment which tend to encourage attendance on the house of God. Pews, passages, and pulpit are furnished with the elegance, and sometimes the luxury, of a modern drawing-room. Persons of the most delicate constitution can therefore attend church, and enjoy the ministrations of the Word, without encountering the torture of hard, ill-constructed seats, or the risk of cold and rheumatism. When will our ecclesiastical architects, instead of resting content with servile imitation, imbibe the true spirit of their great predecessors, and create a style in all respects suitable to the wants of modern times, and to the simple forms of evangelical Protestantism? Let us have clear light, and good ventilation, and comfortable pews, and perfect acoustic arrangements, all combined with refined taste, and such an amount of chaste ornamentation as may accord with the social status of the worshippers.

I was impressed, too, with the completeness of the ecclesiastical establishments in America. Each church has attached to it a suite of buildings adapted for carrying on most efficiently the various departments of congregational work. The Sunday schools are fitted up with due regard to the wants and duties of both teachers and scholars. The semicircular class-benches of polished pine or oak, each having its dozen of little armchairs, are models of neatness and comfort. The children seem to enjoy them amazingly. They feel at home in those tidy seats and spacious and elegant rooms, where they have warmth in winter, and perfect ventilation in summer. The consequence is, that the schools are crowded by the children of all classes, rich and poor alike. Then there are waiting-rooms and committee-rooms for the teachers, the ladies, and the office-bearers of the congregation, and for the minister's Bibleclasses-not, however, the cold, bare, cheerless barracks, with wooden benches and uncarpeted floors, with which we are so familiar here; but rooms furnished to correspond with the social position and home habits of those who are expected to frequent them. The people of America, whatever their status may be, are thus left without the excuses which one hears so frequently in this country, if they absent themselves from

the house of God, or fail to discharge the duties required of them in the several departments of church work.

In the afternoon, I was taken by young Mr. Stuart to a Sunday school which is reckoned one of the sights of Philadelphia. It meets in a large unfinished building in one of the poorer districts of the city. Some fifteen hundred children were present when I entered, and nearly half as many spectators crowded into the "Strangers' Gallery." People-strangers, I mean-seem to go to it as they go to the theatre or the opera --for amusement. They may join, it is true, in the opening hymn, and hear a few sentences of the opening prayer; but their chief object, evidently, is to gaze down on the mass of children away in the area below. I examined as closely as circumstances permitted the working of the school, and the impression left on my mind was, that while the excitement of numbers and parade may possibly attract a few scholars and teachers whom it might be difficult to reach otherwise, yet the whole is not satisfactory. I believe a series of smaller schools, judiciously located, and carefully managed, would do far more good among the masses. I could not but think, as I sat for a time in the Strangers' Gallery, and afterwards on the platform below, studying as well as I could the vast assemblage, that the admission of strangers is a great mistake. They can do no good there; and they might be far better employed elsewhere. There might also, I thought, be more teaching in the school itself, and less time taken up with forms and introductory exercises. Still, with all its drawbacks, it is a noble institution, and a grand example of Christian work. The school, I understood, was organized and is sustained mainly by the labours of one man. All honour, then, to that young Christian merchant, who is devoting so much of his great talents and administrative skill to the training of children for the kingdom of his Master.

WEEKLY MEETING OF MINISTERS.

The ministers' meeting on Monday was to me of the deepest interest. It assembled in the new and splendid building of the Presbyterian Board of Publication. Some seventy or eighty

of the clergymen of Philadelphia and the surrounding country were there, with others from different parts of the United States, who were on a visit to the city, and availed themselves of this opportunity of seeing their brethren. The meeting is held every Monday at eleven o'clock, and continues an hour and a half. It is presided over, I believe, by the ministers in rotation. After devotional exercises, there is a free conference on the state of religion generally. Each one has an opportunity of relating whatever may have taken place of interest in his own district, and whatever difficulties and hindrances he may have encountered. Counsel is asked, advice is given, plans are formed, co-operative missionary enterprise is organized, and united prayer is offered to Him with whom alone is success. Ministers are themselves more closely linked together; they become familiar with the character and extent of each other's labours, trials, and successes the young learn wisdom and prudence from the old; and the old are in turn stimulated to new efforts by the fresh zeal and energy of the young. Such meetings carry one back in imagination to those days when the apostles and disciples assembled in an upper room in Jerusalem or Antioch, and when, untrammelled by cold forms and laws of debate, they consulted as earnest men regarding whatever might best promote the common cause; and they sought by prayer the presence of that dear Master who had so recently promised, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." The meetings have proved, as I learned, eminently useful in fostering brotherly love and leading to brotherly help. They are centres of vital power which is felt over the whole city. Might not the example set by the ministers of Philadelphia be imitated. with advantage in the cities of our own land? Meetings so conducted, free from the formality of church courts, could not fail to give a higher tone to ministerial intercourse, and bring down a more abundant blessing upon ministerial labour.

The Board of Publication is one of the great schemes of the Presbyterian Church in the States. It was founded to select, publish, and disseminate a sound religious literature in a cheap and attractive form. It has done a great work; but it is questionable, now that facilities for the publica

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