In all controversy how much depends on standpoints! How much standpoints are affected by training! We talk fluently about independence and private judgment, and the rights of conscience; all that is well; in the sense, if any, in which we use the words there is no harm in them, but are they not words that need qualification-words that are surrounded by an atmosphere-words that are of necessity limited and partial? The most conflicting conceptions of things may be right from a merely individual point of view and utterly wrong from a point of view that takes in more field and light and air, more of time and space, more of history and experience. It takes all men to make man, all knowledge to make truth, all sacrifice to make love. Only he who knows the whole. "world" can ever imagine that it was worth dying for; only he who knows "all nations" can create a gospel big enough for them; only he who rests in the bosom of the Father can wait until he has put all enemies under his feet. We are but fractions-splinters, not rocks-men, not man. Let us be careful how we come to big conclusions-lest we overweight ourselves, and become popes whilst in the very act of claiming to be Protestants. At the best we see through a glass darkly. Each sees his own glint of truth; no one star is the universe; no one candle is the sun. To know this is to learn how to be charitable, and patient, and hopeful. There is no pope so hateful as the Protestant who acts as if he thought himself infallible.

I think of all our Dissenting training I sometimes break down; my tears are hot and bitter. Let us dwell upon some aspects of this training for a time. We were brought up amongst simple, unsuspecting believers. They told us that the Bible was all true. They called it "The Holy Bible," and they held it to be such. They told us that Eden was a real place, with real trees, and a real serpent. They told us that a four-branched river rolled through the sunny paradise; we thought that Adam bathed in Hiddekel; and that the gold that colored the Pison stream was solid, and yellow, and marketable. We never doubted it. The place on the map was pointed out, with the assurance that if Eden was not there it was thereabouts. Some people believe this still. The Salvation Army believes it. Some Primitive Methodists believe it-Spurgeon believed it. In its highest, deepest, grandest meaning I myself believe it.

Our mothers are responsible for a good deal. They were not literal grammarians, but they were gigantic believers. They used to read to us the story of Joseph and cry over it, and made much of the coat of many colors, and when we came to "your father, the old man of whom ye spake, is he well?" our brawny fathers sobbed and pretended to be only coughing. If anybody had then told us what some people tell us now, that there was no Joseph-no old man-no coat of many colors no life in Egypt-no forgiving brethren-no family reconciliation; that it is all a dream, a fantasy, an illusion in color; I know not in what terms he would have been denounced and with what horror he would have been shunned. Some of us still believe in the history of Joseph; and when all other "short stories" have run out this story

of Joseph will exact its tribute of tears. from the eyes of far-off generations.

Then in this matter of credulity our quaint old pastors were little better than our mothers. If some modern criticism is true those old pastors were unconscious impostors. They had not a "doubt" to bless themselves with. They read the Bible and actually believed it, and preached it without a stammer. They used to preach about Daniel and the lions' den, and make us feel heroic. in the heroism of the brave young man. Now it turns out that there were no lions, there was no den, and worst of all, there was no Daniel. The Book of Daniel is taken away bodily. Yet we are told that the Bible has been given back to us by the critics, and that it is a better book than we had before. Some of us cannot yet receive this saying. At present we are suffering from a grievous sense of loss. Do not suppose, however, that all the higher critics are of one mind, or that they all pursue one method, and do not suppose that every minister has given up Joseph and his brethren, or even Daniel and the lions' den. Broad and indiscriminate statements are apt to be untrue and unjust on all sides of great controversies.

Our dear old pastors used to preach. about David and quotingly call him "the sweet singer of Israel," and now according to some it turns out that David was no singer at all, and that he probably never heard of the Psalms which he is supposed to have written. Still more widespread is the havoc made by some ruthless sickles. It is bad enough to lose Joseph and his brethren, Daniel and his den, David and his harp, Jonah and his whale, but these are comparative trifles. There was, according to some,

no

Miraculous Conception, no ministry of Miracles, no Resurrection of Christ. All is idealism, poetry, dream, and hazy myth. Bethlehem and Nazareth disappear from what we used to call the sacred page. In the old, old time when we were very young the Christian Church had a heaven and a hell, an immortal soul, a direct revelation from heaven, a book which it called "the Word of God." In those early days we thought ascended ones were "for ever with the Lord." We said, in a sob which was really a song, "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and lead them unto living fountains of water, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." We said that each of them had a crown, a harp, and a white robe. Now we are told that all we supposed to be real was but fancy, mirage, and "the stuff that dreams are made of."

It

It is not to be wondered at that some of us still cling to the Bible after the illiterate and traditional manner of our fathers and mothers, and pastors. Blame our training. Take full account of our antecedents. We drew in our love of the Bible with our mothers' milk. The Bible helped some of us when the father died, and there was neither coal in the grate nor bread in the cupboard. sanctified our poverty, our struggles, our desolation. It turned the grave into a garden-plot. It put heart into us when all other things failed. The Bible had made us men. We are not to be told that this consolatory (not critical) Bible is still left to us. How long will it be left? Still higher critics may possibly arise in distant years who will purloin

this jewel also. Who can say how much of the Bible will be left in half a century? We have a right to be suspicious. Where much has gone more may go. On the whole, therefore, I am of opinion that it is better to hold the Bible very much as we have always held it, to keep an open mind in relation to all competent and reverent criticism, to cling to the Bible in all its proved consolations and particular results, and to leave many difficulties and perplexities to be settled when in heaven we have more time and more light.

There is one test to which I cannot but submit every creed, every religion, every book. What kind of manhood has it produced? What sort of men did the old Bible grow? What of their aspirations, their service, their sacrifice? They were grand men. Perhaps narrow-minded, perhaps austere, perhaps conservative, but they were honorable, determined, self-sacrificing men. They were men who put themselves to a great deal of trouble for others. They gave away much money. They counted not their lives dear unto them. They liberated slaves, they smashed iniquitous monopolies, they founded missionary societies, they dared fire and sword, pestilence and cruelty. They had not the latest learning on the Pentateuch, Isaiah, and the Apocryphal books, but they gripped the Bible with a nerve of steel. They had immense and miracle-working faith. I believe in my heart that they were more self-sacrificing than many who laugh at their ignorance and condemn their nar

rowness.

In further considering this subject of training we must at once make a broad distinction between old men and young men. We have not had the same training

for our work. We belong to different generations and must be judged accordingly. Of my young brethren I may say, as many seniors can say, "They must increase, but I must decrease." All that I ask from men who have enjoyed the highest university advantages is gratitude to the men who placed such advantages within their reach. Let God choose his own ministers. Always leave him room in his own church. For myself I do not propose to follow any learning which would create, perhaps with a degree of ostentation, a gulf between the pulpit and the pew. Learning should not divide, but unite. It is poor learning that makes men cynics and sneerers. I pray God for "the tongue of the learned, that knows how to be a word in season to him that is weary." That is the great learning! That is the learning of experience, of bitter sorrow, of sharp pain, of lonely Gethsemane. I pray God to continue to send into the ministry of the Free Churches men who will provoke the question: "How knoweth this man these things, seeing he hath never learned letters?" Letters, if they stand alone, are the poorest and meanest of all learning. We must not disparage letters; we speak of them in this connection when they are letters only, grammars only, lexicons only. When they are saturated with the spirit of prayer, they are an acceptable sacrifice and a sweet smelling savor to God. We must pay for the inspiration of the Almighty. "The gold and crystal cannot equal it, and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold: no mention shall be mode of coral or of pearls; the topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it," and as for rubies, they are in comparison as ashes thrown out as worthless. Preaching in not

sermon

building, it is sermon-growing; it is the eloquence of a redeemed and grateful soul; it is the glow and the radiance of a wise exposition confirmed by a holy and satisfying experience. Never regard the Gospel as "simple" in the sense of being shallow; rather be overcome and prostrated as by "a light above the brightness of the sun," a baptism of glory at the Damascus gate of the pulpit. Never preach in haste. Study much, not to make the sermon obscure, but to make it as clear as crystal, and when you have done your very best always remember that you have not yet penetrated to "the secret place of the tabernacles of the Most High," and that far beyond all star-routes and orbits immeasurable, and all shadows "dark with excess of light," there is a mystic path infinitely brighter than the milky way, which the vulture's eye of the sublimest power and genius hath not seen. I say again, therefore, that we do not want the help of men who boast of their ignorance and offer their crude vulgarities as a sacrifice unto the Lord. (Condensed) British Weekly.

THE REV. R. J. CAMPBELL, M.A., PASTOR-ELECT THE CITY

TEMPLE, LONDON.

A successor to Dr. Parker has been appointed in the person of the Rev. Reginald J. Campbell, M.A., of Brighton, where he has carried on for some years a very brilliant and successful ministry. He was a great favorite with the late pastor of the City Temple, and has proved his power to attract crowds by his Thursday noon addresses at the City Temple, from the doors of which sometimes hundreds have been turned away. It is curious that Dr. Parker's connection with this historic church commenced with his serving as assistant to another clansman of the name of Campbell. I refer to the able Dr. John Campbell, editor of The British Banner, the Robertsen-Nicoll of the day, and who was a formidable controversialist.

ANNIVERSARY RECEPTION AT THE SCOTCH PRESBYTE

RIAN CHURCH.

Twelve years of the present pastorate of the Scotch Presbyterian Church in this city were completed on the 1st of March, and the last year has been marked by the largest accessions in the 147 years of the church's history. The congregation therefore deemed it a fitting time to show some mark of their esteem for their

SCOTCH CHURCH,

Cor. 96th street and Central Park, New York.

beloved pastor, the Rev. David G. Wylie, Ph.D., D.D., and appreciation of his faithful and efficient service. On Friday evening, March 13th, a reception was tendered to Dr. and Mrs. Wylie in the church parlors, at which about 400 persons were present to extend their greetings. The rooms were prettily decorated with flowers and plants. In the center of the main room was a large group of tall palms, beneath which Dr. and Mrs. Wylie stood to receive the guests. The latter part of the evening was given to a musical program in charge of the organist of the church, T. Arthur

Miller. Selections were rendered by Miss Maria de H. Noble, soprano; Miss Lewis, contralto, and Arthur Griffith Hughes, baritone, and a violin solo by David Bell. After the musical program, refreshments were served in the dining room of the church. The gathering was an exceedingly pleasant one, and was marked by a spirit of love for the church and its pastor.

Dr. Wylie was called from the Knox Presbyterian Church, 72d street and Second avenue, to become pastor of the Scotch Church, when it was located in 14th street near Sixth Avenue. His call is dated January 26, 1891, and he was installed pastor on Sabbath evening, March 1st, of the same year. He succeeded the Rev. Samuel M. Hamilton, D.D., who served the church as its pastor for seventeen years. Dr. Hamilton is now pastor of the Presbyterian church at Englewood, N. J.

The change in location from 14th street to 96th street and Central Park West was made in 1893, the handsome chapel on 95th street being first completed and occupied for all services for about a year. The corner-stone of the church proper was laid on Memorial Day, 1894, with impressive ceremonies. The building is 72x100 feet in dimensions; of Romanesque style of architecture; base to first story floor line of Warsaw bluestone; above of buff Indiana limestone, richly carved; with an imposing tower at the corner.

Since the change of location, the work of the church has been richly blessed. The church has now over 700 members. It has a Sabbath-school whose attendance during the past winter has been reaching well up to the 500 mark, with an enrolled membership of about 600.