was I born, and for this cause came I into the worldthat I should bear witness unto the truth." The same, although in a secondary sense, is to be said of Christian journalism. And thus was it born to rule. For this cause has it come into the front rank of the world's ruling forces that it might be a martyr to the truth, and show the world the things which are, and which are surely coming to be, in the light of that which is, eternally. Christian journalism sees the world, near and far, as it is: and the sight appears to it at once most appalling and most inspiring. It sees the wrongs, the falsehoods, the perversions of truth, the enslavement mental and spiritual, the burdens and the strifes, the heart-burning hates and the blood-freezing fears, the thousand-fold abominations of desolation, old and recent, often most disastrously present and active, where least they should be allowed to stand. All this it looks forth upon, and yet it can not despair; it dare not falter. It believes him "unto whom all things have been given both in heaven and on earth." It knows that he will never fail nor be discouraged, until he bring forth judgment unto victory! And it takes it as a no small part of its mission to kindle hope and awaken courage, and to foster in the heart of all good men a divine audacity of purpose in our great world-reforming task. Bad as the world is-and the newspaper is apt enough to see the worst-the philosophy of pessimism, in every form of it, is abhorrent to true Christian journalism. The prophetic word, "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins, to him be the glory and the mastery forever," is ever ringing in its ear, and giving tone and the key-note to its utterances. Christian journalism, it must be admitted, has not been early in coming to its kingdom. Surprising as its development has appeared to be during the last half century, it is still groping if haply it may find its exact place. It has nothing of the temper of (Milton's) Satan, who would reign alone or not at all. It is characteristic of it to be content to be-yea, to be ambitious to become, joint-ruler with other anointed forces in Christ's kingdom. If it has sometimes seemed to be slightly given to self-assertion, in demanding popular recognition of its legitimate prerogatives, in spite of any professional prejudices which there may have been against the up-start claims of a novus homo, it can not be said that it has been disinclined to accord due recognition and honor to the other coördinate functions of an aggressive Christianity. On the contrary, the journal never magnifies its own office so much as when rejoicing in its opportunity and facilities for magnifying every other office for good, and doing somewhat to give it wider publicity, a larger scope, a cumulative force, a perpetually self-multiplying efficiency. Christian journalism is not mere ecclesiastical journalism. It understands better than that comes to what is meant by Peter's vision, when he was bidden, “Count nothing common or unclean." There are in the world about 15,000 newspapers. Some of these are wholly secular, others are wholly ecclesiastical; some are believed to be satanic; nor are those of this sort wholly limited to the "secular" class of journals. Then, there is another kind-though I dare not undertake to say just where you will find them, nor would I admit that the number of such is small,-which are simply, comprehensively, thoroughly Christian. Anointed with wisdom and power, they go about doing good. They first of all seek to catch from the spirit of the Master himself the highest inspirations to helpful service. They snatch wisdom from a thousand sources. They light a thousand torches, or fan them into purer flame, and pass them from hand to hand, going forth every whither. They put under requisition a thousand pens of such as speak because they have something to say, and are constrained to say it. They glean from near and far. They keep in mind, not one class alone, but all classes of readers, and these of all ages. They deem it a matter of inestimable advantage that they can engage the interest of whole households in the same periodical, thus unifying the home life, and binding it with common, endearing associations, in course of each generation making each one's "days to be bound each to each in filial piety." These journals (when you find them), you will find that while they watch with unsleeping eye contemporary events and movements, are at the same time profoundly imbued with the "historic spirit." They have studied deeply the various predominating tendencies and influences which have operated hitherto, in shaping the developments of human history. They have noted carefully what sort of historic jointures the successive epochs have made in the transition from one to another. They watch present occurrences in the light of the past, and, above all, in the light of those truths and forces that are eternal; and so they are enabled to sight well the imminent future. And thus it happens, that the continually emergent specific problems of the time are distinctly seen and understood, foreseen and prepared for. It is Christianity, of course, which is the answer to every want, the remedy for every wrong, the solace for every sorrow, the solution of all perplexities, the supreme force upholding all right endeavor. But, how to get Christianity applied to the want, is the question. Every thoughtful person has times when he stands with tremulous solicitude in presence of certain emergencies of the time. From many quarters falsehoods and wrongs, with face of brass and look of scorn, snap the finger of defiance and fling out the taunt: what are you go-ing to do about it? We can not escape it; we must take up the challenge. In some way, our power must overmatch their craft. Preaching, the foremost agency of all though it is, fails to meet the exigency of the time. Education in the schools is desultory and thin. Christian example is a sorry mixture of good and bad. Journalism alone, however perfect in its ideal, is puny. And yet, distinct as these several strands of influence are, held firmly in the hand of the Almighty, they may be braided into a power that can not be broken! The question as to how these mutually supplementary agencies can best do their work, implies this other question:How can they best work together? As for antagonism, there is none; as for jealousies, there should not be any. The Christian sermon and the Christian newspaper aim at essentially the same thing, though in different ways. It | is the task of Christian journalism to stimulate the publie conscience, to educate the public judgment, to concentrate,. form, and formulate the public opinion. It is, then, its business to go to work and bring all wrongs before the bar of this popular judgment, and to enforce all reforms by the majestic sanctions of this public opinion. Journalism is a sort of "board of commission," endowed with unlimited. power to investigate and report. But what a range and sweep of investigation, observation, suggestion constantly open before it! Its commission never expires. All methods of search are its own. There is scarcely anything which it is not pertinent for it to inquire into. It is perpetually resolving itself into a "committee of the whole." It is a parliament that is never prorogued; it is a congress where "motions" are always in order, except the motion to adjourn; it is an "advisory council" which never waits on "letters-missive" from the churches; it is a "regularly recurring national council," which meets, not triennially, but once a week. Without making any pretensions to being "the court of our Lord Jesus Christ," it is a Christian court, which never rises, before which testimony is perpetually being received,. where witnesses may at any time be questioned or crossquestioned, before which "grand juries" are all the while presenting fresh indictments, and where there are no "final appeals" short of the "law and the testimony." It is the grand meeting-place for all earnest souls, men and women, whose moral sense has been touched with emotion, whose devotion to the Master has caught something of his own enthusiasm of humanity, who discern somewhat the spirit of the time or who have felt deeply the subtile momentum of that tremendous stream of tendency that sweeps down from the past upon the present evermore, and for the right direction of which they feel themselves to be, both individually and jointly, responsible. possible with all that the men of his time know, especially with the beliefs and misbeliefs, convictions and doubts, which most thinking persons about him are wrestling with and should thus know just where and how to find his hearers, in respect of their deepest and most vital longings and necessities. But, when it comes to the sermon, it should never be as if he had forgotten that the Christian newspaper is coöperating with him in the same field. Or, as if—if he had not already done so-it were not a grand part of his ministerial wisdom to do his utmost to get the most suitable Christian family paper into every home within his parish. For, it is the newspaper, not the sermon, whose calling it now is to scout, and skirmish, and forage here and there, and maintain its system of pickets and advance guards on every side, in defence of truth and conquest over error. The sermon has no time for all that, but must stay at the front and charge right onward. John Milton, as you remember, in his most eloquent plea in defence of a free press, wrote: "It is of greatest concernment in the church and commonwealth to have a vigilant eye how books [had he lived in our time he would of course have said newspapers] do demean themselves as well as men; and (if found bad) thereafter to confine, imprison and do sharpest justice on them as malefactors. For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them, to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are. Nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. I know they are as lively and as vigorously There is nothing more characteristic of it than its universal intrusiveness. Like the camel, it has protruded its inquisitive, sagacious head into every miller's shop, and withdrawn it from none. There is not any profession or other department of modern enterprise into which it has not gently, resistlessly, pushed its way, profoundly, in many cases completely, modifying their methods, and almost wholly changing the instruments used. There are other schoolmasters abroad than those who sit mending quills or handling ferules. There are other jurists than those who occupy the "woolsack" or look wise in silk gowns, or who sit sleepily in high-backed chairs while the barristers busy themselves, as Domitian did, catching flies-the "wicked fleas" of sheer technicalities. There are other pulpits than those put up in meeting-houses. And the largest audiences are not those gathered in any church. The relation between the priest and his people has ceased to be just what it used to be. The gold-productive as those fabulous dragon's teeth; and being headed cane awes no more, and he who would make of himself a Pontifex Maximus now, is fortunate if he escape making himself ridiculous. And even that august pontifical pretender who sits over there in the chair of St. Peter has grown to feel his impotence without the rallying support of his fittingly-acknowledged "new army of the press." Has the Christian ministry lost its divine call to be, because of the rise and extension of Christian journalism? Not in the least. Is it likely that it ever will? Never. Has it lost any of its unique prerogatives? It has experienced certain changes, but has suffered no loss. The very structure of human society will always furnish a vocation for the spiritual counselor, the religious leader, the personally present organizer. While the mere teacher may sit in his chair, or the journalist trace his thought with a pencil, the preacher must be upon his feet to waken and help the hearts of the people in worship, to stir the thought of the congregation, and seal conviction with actual and instant pursuasion. The preacher still has a call to be a man discerning with clearest penetration, the character, the tendencies, and the counter-tendencies, of not only the world that has been, but also of the passing hour which bears all things on its infinite bosom; able to descry danger as it approaches, to suggest, organize and direct effort precisely as it is needed, being himself preëminently and contagiously strong, nurtured by constant association with eternal verities and the everlasting facts, and ever carrying into his personal ministrations, especially in the sermon, the "divine sense of victory and success." But, he must be content to leave for the journal and other educational and other influential agencies, much that once pertained to the ministry, with a sacred contemperature of humility and exultation, accept it as his business, chiefly, to charge knowledge with influence, and to change truth into character, touching with consecrated fire the common thought and several wills of the waiting congregation. Leaving to the newspaper-hoping it is the purest and wisest of Christian journals -all the rest of the week, the sermon claims its own one hour; but then it is for it to strike, as the lightning does! Doubtless the modern preacher ought to be as familiar as sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men; and yet, unless wariness be used, as good almost kill a man as kill a good book. Who kills a man, kills a reasonable creature-God's image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kill the image of God as it were in the eye. Many a man lives a burthen to the earth; but a good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, enbalmed and treasured, on purpose to a life beyond life!” If, now, all that may be said of good books, how much more might it be said of the true Christian newspaper. The ideal Christian journal has not yet appeared! They could not find an editor! And he could not find the right contributors, nor a public worthy of it. And even if published, within a year, half-a-thousand people, all the way between Dan and Beersheba, impatient that their hobby had not been ridden, or had been upset, would be writing in exclaiming, "Stop my paper!" And several of these would, likely enough, be ministers. And though it might venture for awhile to be, and like Moses from Mount Nebo receive glorious glimpses of the Promised Land, it would,. perhaps, presently find itself ready for the kiss of God and the grace of translation! However, when such an idealized Christian journal does come, and come to stay, it will find enough to do, and will tend to make things lively all around. It will find a wonderful world spread out before it. It will feel itself to be at the focal center of the world, touched by the vehement impact of all its influences and streams of tendency, both of those that are concurrent and of those that conflict. The sight of what this vast being called humanity is, and is doing, and ought to be doing, will be at once oppressive and animating. The thought that, if not even now a massa perditionis, its millions can escape the imminent perdition in only one way, will strike hard the deepest chords of compassion. The thought that, nevertheless, this is the world which God so loved, will make it love the world too-the whole world, and to glory in what is destined to be the total outcome of its history. And it will covet for its own supreme gift, first of all, that "anointing of the Holy One which teacheth all things." was I born, and for this cause came I into the worldthat I should bear witness unto the truth." The same, although in a secondary sense, is to be said of Christian journalism. And thus was it born to rule. For this cause has it come into the front rank of the world's ruling forces that it might be a martyr to the truth, and show the world the things which are, and which are surely coming to be, in the light of that which is, eternally. Christian journalism sees the world, near and far, as it is: and the sight appears to it at once most appalling and most inspiring. It sees the wrongs, the falsehoods, the perversions of truth, the enslavement mental and spiritual, the burdens and the strifes, the heart-burning hates and the blood-freezing fears, the thousand-fold abominations of desolation, old and recent, often most disastrously present and active, where least they should be allowed to stand. All this it looks forth upon, and yet it can not despair; it dare not falter. It believes him "unto whom all things have been given both in heaven and on earth." It knows that he will never fail nor be discouraged, until he bring forth judgment unto victory! And it takes it as a no small part of its mission to kindle hope and awaken courage, and to foster in the heart of all good men a divine audacity of purpose in our great world-reforming task. Bad as the world is-and the newspaper is apt enough to see the worst-the philosophy of pessimism, in every form of it, is abhorrent to true Christian journalism. The prophetic word, "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins, to him be the glory and the mastery forever," is ever ringing in its ear, and giving tone and the key-note to its utterances. Christian journalism, it must be admitted, has not been early in coming to its kingdom. Surprising as its development has appeared to be during the last half century, it is still groping if haply it may find its exact place. It has nothing of the temper of (Milton's) Satan, who would reign alone or not at all. It is characteristic of it to be content to be-yea, to be ambitious to become, joint-ruler with other anointed forces in Christ's kingdom. If it has sometimes seemed to be slightly given to self-assertion, in demanding popular recognition of its legitimate prerogatives, in spite of any professional prejudices which there may have been against the up-start claims of a novus homo, it can not be said that it has been disinclined to accord due recognition and honor to the other coördinate functions of an aggressive Christianity. On the contrary, the journal never magnifies its own office so much as when rejoicing in its opportunity and facilities for magnifying every other office for good, and doing somewhat to give it wider publicity, a larger scope, a eumulative force, a perpetually self-multiplying efficiency. Christian journalism is not mere ecclesiastical journalism. It understands better than that comes to what is meant by Peter's vision, when he was bidden, "Count nothing common or unclean." There are in the world about 15,000 newspapers. Some of these are wholly secular, others are wholly ecclesiastical; some are believed to be satanic; nor are those of this sort wholly limited to the "secular" class of journals. Then, there is another kind—though I dare not undertake to say just where you will find them, nor would I admit that the number of such is small,-which are simply, comprehensively, thoroughly Christian. Anointed with wisdom and power, they go about doing good. They first of all seek to catch from the spirit of the Master himself the highest inspirations to helpful service. They snatch wisdom from a thousand sources. They light a thousand torches, or fan them into purer flame, and pass them from hand to hand, going forth every whither. They put under requisition a thousand pens of such as speak because they have something to say, and are constrained to say it. They glean from near and far. They keep in mind, not one class alone, but all classes of readers, and these of all ages. They it a matter of inestimable advantage that they can the interest of whole households in the same pers thus unifying the home life, and binding it with ea endearing associations, in course of each generatie ing each one's "days to be bound each to each in piety." These journals (when you find them), you will f while they watch with unsleeping eye contemporary and movements, are at the same time profoundly i with the "historic spirit." They have studied deep various predominating tendencies and influences have operated hitherto, in shaping the developments man history. They have noted carefully what sort toric jointures the successive epochs have made in transition from one to another. They watch present rences in the light of the past, and, above all, in the of those truths and forces that are eternal; and so the enabled to sight well the imminent future. And thust pens, that the continually emergent specific proble the time are distinctly seen and understood, forese prepared for. It is Christianity, of course, which is the answerto want, the remedy for every wrong, the solace for every row, the solution of all perplexities, the supreme for holding all right endeavor. But, how to get Christianity applied to the want, b question. Every thoughtful person has times whe stands with tremulous solicitude in presence of cer emergencies of the time. From many quarters falset and wrongs, with face of brass and look of scorn, snap finger of defiance and fling out the taunt: what are you ing to do about it? We can not escape it; we must tak the challenge. In some way, our power must over their craft. Preaching, the foremost agency of all though it is, faimeet the exigency of the time. Education in the schoo desultory and thin. Christian example is a sorry mixtu good and bad. Journalism alone, however perfect in ideal, is puny. And yet, distinct as these several strande influence are, held firmly in the hand of the Almighty, th may be braided into a power that can not be broken! The question as to how these mutually supplement agencies can best do their work, implies this other questa How can they best work together? As for antagonis there is none; as for jealousies, there should not be any. The Christian sermon and the Christian newspaperin at essentially the same thing, though in different ways. is the task of Christian journalism to stimulate the puta conscience, to educate the public judgment, to concentraz form, and formulate the public opinion. It is, then, its be iness to go to work and bring all wrongs before the bar : this popular judgment, and to enforce all reforms by th majestic sanctions of this public opinion. Journalism is sort of "board of commission," endowed with unlimites power to investigate and report. But what a range a sweep of investigation, observation, suggestion constantly open before it! Its commission never expires. All methods of search an its own. There is scarcely anything which it is not pet nent for it to inquire into. It is perpetually resolving its into a "committee of the whole." It is a parliament that is never prorogued; it is a congress where "motions" are ways in order, except the motion to adjourn; it is an "a visory council" which never waits on "letters-missive from the churches; it is a regularly recurring nationa council," which meets, not triennially, but once a week. Without making any pretensions to being "the court of our Lord Jesus Christ," it is a Christian court, which never rises, before which testimony is perpetually being received re witnesses may at any time be questioned or crossstioned, before which "grand juries" are all the while enting fresh indictments, and where there are no "final eals" short of the "law and the testimony." is the grand meeting-place for all earnest souls, men women, whose moral sense has been touched with >tion, whose devotion to the Master has caught some possible with all that the men of his time know, especially with the beliefs and misbeliefs, convictions and doubts, which most thinking persons about him are wrestling with; and should thus know just where and how to find his hearers, in respect of their deepest and most vital longings and necessities. But, when it comes to the sermon, it should never be as if he had forgotten that the Christian newspaper is coöperating with him in the same field. Or. as if—if he had not already done so-it were not a grand part of his ministerial wisdom to do his utmost to get the most suitable Christian family paper into every home within his parish. For, it is the newspaper, not the ser mon, whose calling it now is to scout, and skirmish, avð forage here and there, and maintain its system of pickets and advance guards on every side, in defence of truth and conquest over error. The sermon has no time for sit that. but must stay at the front and charge right onward. John Milton, as you remember, in his most eloquent plen in defence of a free press, wrote: "It is of greatest cor cernment in the church and commonwealth to have a vie lant eye how books [had he lived in our time he woɛle o course have said newspapers] do demean themselves ig of his own enthusiasm of humanity, who discern ewhat the spirit of the time or who have felt deeply the tile momentum of that tremendous stream of tendency t sweeps down from the past upon the present evermore, I for the right direction of which they feel themselves to both individually and jointly, responsible. 'here is nothing more characteristic of it than its univerintrusiveness. Like the camel, it has protruded its inquisve, sagacious head into every miller's shop, and withdrawn rom none. There is not any profession or other department modern enterprise into which it has not gently, resistsly, pushed its way, profoundly, in many cases completely, ›difying their methods, and almost wholly changing the struments used. There are other schoolmasters abroad an those who sit mending quills or handling ferules. ere are other jurists than those who occupy the "wool-well as men; and (if found bad) thereafter to co se jur ek" or look wise in silk gowns, or who sit sleepily in gh-backed chairs while the barristers busy themselves, Domitian did, catching flies-the "wicked fleas" of sheer chnicalities. There are other pulpits than those put up meeting-houses. And the largest audiences are not those thered in any church. The relation between the priest and s people has ceased to be just what it used to be. The gold-productive as those fabulous dr eaded cane awes no more, and he who would make of him prison and do sharpest justice on them as ma sown up and down, may chance z sentiać k lf a Pontifex Maximus now, is fortunate if he escape mak- and yet, unless wariness be ueď sa v ig himself ridiculous. And even that august pontifical preender who sits over there in the chair of St. Peter has grown » feel his impotence without the rallying support of his ttingly-acknowledged "new army of the press." Has the Christian ministry lost its divine call to be, beause of the rise and extension of Christian journalism? Tot in the least. Is it likely that it ever will? Never. Has it lost any of its unique prerogatives? It has experinced certain changes, but has suffered no loss. The very structure of human society will always furnish vocation for the spiritual counselor, the religious leader, he personally present organizer. While the mere teacher may sit in his chair, or the journalist trace his thought with ■ pencil, the preacher must be upon his feet to waken and help the hearts of the people in worship, to stir the thought of the congregation, and seal conviction with actual and nstant pursuasion. The preacher still has a call to be a man discerning with clearest penetration, the character. che tendencies, and the counter-tendencies, of not only the world that has been, but also of the passing hour which bears all things on its infinite bosom; able to descry da ger as it approaches, to suggest, organize and direct effort p cisely as it is needed, being himself preeminently and co giously strong, nurtured by constant association with verities and the everlasting facts, and ever carryin his personal ministrations, especially in the s "divine sense of victory and success." But, he "~ tent to leave for the journal and other educar**** influential agencies, much that once pertain try, with a sacred contemperature of her tion, accept it as his business, chiefly. * > change truth with influence ing with co wills of th per-hop -all the hour; 1 Dou the comm egation t and as kill a good book. Who & Bal. creature-God's image; but he wh kills reason itself, kill the s The ideal Chris7797 in exs would f nd ad, ich .ch I mind to do. ; most le only eople is mere ers. But es of the , Jupiter, the wor[esus, who ve attained awed to be the id, worship ve decently foe of ven who had first ing of the Holy This coming journalism will not be an old fogy; it will not be a new fogy: it will not be any "fogy" at all. But it will carry a cool and level head, and bear, beneath its balanced, strong shoulders, a heart hot and steadfast as are the anthracite furnace-flames where ores are purged of their dross, and from which the precious metal flows molten and pure into the mint, perpetually issuing in coin, clear-ringing and solid, with bright face and sharp edges, stamped with the master's own superscription, and ready for the thought-currency of the world! And when it comes along (as perhaps, after all, it may some day come!) it will be more chivalric than any plumed knight; more possessed by a great purpose than any crusader; gentle and sweet tempered as is any child; heroic as ever was any champion of oppressed innocence, or other hapless wight whom cruel hands were ready to thrust down lower yet. Its face will blanch and cower before no foe. It will pause to palter in no idle disputations. It will carry a free lance, always held at rest, and, for its steed, will ride the wings of the lightning. The ideal Christian journal will probably belong to "our denomination;" that is to say, it will have its own pretty well defined convictions and rational preferences. At the same time, nothing will be more noticeable about this, than the way it will manage to make its spirit of delightful inter-denominational, as well as intra-denominational, comity and sweet charity toward all that is best in all the denominatious, shine as a kind of aureole about the crown of its firm loyalty to its own. It will have an especial love for ministers. And this it will frequently attest in ways that shall prove to them "an excellent oil." There will be no brave clear-seeing reformer, with his more than Herculean task before him, who will think to venture on it without this supporting championship. There will be no great missionary undertaking, but it will put to its lips this silver trumpet and through it call to the people and talk with the nations. If it happens, as sometimes it may, that heresies, multitudinous and foul-incipient or over-grown-both occult and open, seemingly infinitely persistent, religious, social, political, economic, or industrial heresies, and they are seen pushing their way into every city and town, infesting, as plagues, every home, and every apartment and utensil of the home life and character-the uplifted rod of Jehovah staying the plague and healing that that has been defiled will be seen held in the hand of this Christian journalism. Nor will any man of creative genius, born to organize and rule, to originate vast and far-reaching schemes, to marshal multitudes of men and means and forces, to unify and utilize innumerable helpers in the carrying on of his comprehensive purposes, especially if these plans, in their wide verge and scope, contemplate the giving of a new momentum to the total educational movement, in Christian ways, to an entire continent, think for a moment of compassing his aims without the help of a whole Flood of journalistic coadjutors. And then there will be no home so rich or cultured, no Christian home so poor, but this measurelessly knowing and benignant friend, full of news, chat and cheer, breezy with the breath of the world's most fervid life, instinct with the best which the latest books contain, fresh from all the ongoing revivals, venerable and strong with the aspect of that divine philosophy which is not "harsh and crabbed as dull facts suppose, but musical as is Apollo's lute." There will be no home, I say, but there he can make himself wholly at home, and ever increasingly welcome. The child will leap with delight to greet his coming and help him off with his wraps and mufflers. The holy grandmother, who had been sitting lost in the deep reverie of prayer, that soon the Kingdom may come, her eye will gleam with wondrous far-away depths of joy, as she replaces the spectacles and looks over page after page to see how the glorious gospel-work goes forward. At nightfall, when father comes in, wearied, worried it may be, and depressed with the day's toil and strife, supper over and seated at the fireside, inexpressible is the soothing restfulness that steals upon him, as, quit of personal carking cares, he looks forth to see what his fellow toilers have meanwhile been doing in all the various shapes of sanctified industry and lines of Christian endeavor. And then, the "tea things" having been set in order for the night, when mother joins the circle at the hearthstone, and listens to what her sisters have, here and there in this and other lands, been doing to create happy homes for women the world over, it is "good as a meeting" to watch how a face, however "doubled up with care" it may have been, unwrinkles into smoothness, and gleams with strangely expanded love and the freshened light of hope, that the Day-the Day so dear to hearts that hope-is coming and already reddening the face of the morning. And so it goes on, with snatches of song and sermon, news and notes, intelligence from our churches and tidings from all churches, all so arranged and composed as to constitute a sort of poem of providence, a symphony of unfolding prophecy, or oratorio of the church breathing forth in both deeds and words its ardent prayers and conjubilant hopes. And so luminous and fresh, so joyous and large does this ideal friend make the home life to be, when this ideal of Christian journalism is at home, that the next time he comes, though there be scarcely a week between his visits, you shall observe such a lightening of footsteps, such a brightening of faces and genial multiplication of reasonable delights, that you might, at first, imagine that the family were about to receive a Thanksgiving visit from all their sisters and their cousins at once! THE OLD FAMILIAR FACES. I have had playmates, I have had companions, I have been laughing, I have been carousing, I loved a love once, fairest among women; I have a friend, a kinder friend has no man; Friend of my bosom, thou more than a brother, A DIRGE. Calm on the bosom of thy God E'en while with ours thy footsteps trod |