In the present deplorable condition of politics it sometimes seems as though money was the great and only requisite, but it is encouraging to note that occasionally men of irreproachable char

acter, but without a large bank account, are chosen for high and honorable positions. Last year Mr. M. Linn Bruce ably and wisely discharged his duties as president of the New York County Republi

can Committee, but on account of politi

cal intrigue he resigned. During the mayoralty campaign his energy, affability and excellent speeches made a lasting impression upon the public, and doubt less his ability and popularity with the best citizens led the leaders of the Republicans to place his name before the convention last month for the office of Lieutenant-Governor, and he was nominated by acclamation.

A year ago we gave a sketch of his life in THE CALEDONIAN, and predicted still higher honors for him in the future.

Mr. Bruce first impressed the leading spirits of the State in the campaign of 1888 as a man of sterling character in the cause of righteousness and good government, and ever since that time his services have been eagerly sought for by the State and national committees to advocate their cause in addressing political meetings in different parts of the State.

Mr. Bruce is a son of Rev. James Bruce, D.D., who has been pastor of the United Presbyterian Church at Andes, N. Y., for nearly forty years. That the son has not departed from the teachings of his childhood is shown by his position as leading elder of the Fourth Presbyterian Church of this city. Mr. Bruce's great-grandfather was a native of Morebattle, near Kelso, Roxburyshire, Scotland, and came to the United States in the middle of the Eighteenth Century, and settled in Ohio. Mr. Bruce was born at Mercersburg, Pa., on October 1, 1860. After finishing his course at the Andes Academy in 1880 he entered Rutgers College, from which, four years later, he graduated, the valedictorian of his class.

Following the example of so many noted men in our country, he taught for a few years in the Albany Academy, and then took up the study of law in the office of Cassius M. Shaw, in Andes, and was admitted to the bar in 1889.

The following year he came to New York, and accepted the position of managing clerk in the office of Hector M. Hitchings. In 1892 Mr. Bruce started out independently in his office at 18 Wall street, where he has carried on a successful practice. In Februray, 1902, he was prominently mentioned as United States District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York.

In 1894 Mr. Bruce was married to Mrs. Lillian B. Knapp, and it is a strange coincidence that her grandfather, Mr. Ballantyne, also came from Roxburyshire. With his family of four children. he lives in his pleasant home on West Ninety-fourth street, New York, in the Twenty-first Assembly District.

The progress of this young lawyer and politician will be watched with keen interest, as rarely in the United States is a man who is actively engaged in Christian work called to fill a great political position; for such positions are usually held by "professional politicians," who as a rule do not have reputations as Christians. But our day loudly calls for practical reformers, who will stand firmly for righteousness and wrest the power from the hands of unscrupulous men. The influence of Christianity ought to be felt in politics, and so save the State and nation from corruption. Here is a grand field opened for men of ability and consecrated courage to serve God and their generation.

In the first century, when Britain was still the land of shaggy forests, and filled by woad-painted inhabitants, over which the Druids presided, commercial relations subsisted with the great trading cities of the Mediterranean basin; and in the trading vessels, side by side with merchants intent on disposing of their wares from the Far East to the less civilized people of Britain, were godly men who told of the death of Christ under Tiberius the Emperor, and rejoiced in the hope of being able to win. the Britons to know Him.

It would appear, also, that British soldiers who had fought in battle against the Romans and had been taken as prisers to Rome, through the Roman legionaries whom the Apostle Paul had influenced, came to know of and trust in Christ, and when they returned to their native country they brought with them the Gospel. Probably, also, the godly officers and soldiers of the Roman legions, men like Cornelius, were led to preach the Gospel to their British subjects. Through these various methods. it is quite certain that perhaps scores, if not hundreds, of Christian churches were erected for the worship of God, within the first two centuries of the Christian era, and extended even beyond the walls of Adrian, into the wilds of Scotland.

During that last awful persecution under Diocletian, when the catacombs were filled with the bodies of martyrs,

a fearful persecution broke out in Britain also; and it was probably then that Alban the martyr was burnt at St. Albans and many Christians were driven out into the wilds. Under the name of Culdees (cultores, worshipers) they built their churches through the regions occupied by the Picts and Scots, and brought thousands under the knowledge of the Gospel. It is interesting to know that the Christianity of those first two centuries, as it spread amid the barbarism and druidism of Great Britain, was of the purest and simplest type. A notable instance of this is furnished by the story of St. Patrick.

Not far from Glasgow, though there was no Glasgow then, upon the shores of the ocean, dwelt a poor family, the father of which was deacon of a humble church, whilst the mother was generally recognized as a saintly woman. A little boy was born to them whose name was Succat, but as he grew up he became wild and careless of his parents' teaching and prayers, until at the age of sixteen he was caught by pirates and carried off to Ireland, to be sold as a swineherd. As the lad sat among the swine, the teachings of his godly father and mother came back on him, and he knelt down and truly gave his heart to Christ. He says: "I was sixteen years old and knew not the true God, but in that strange land the Lord opened my unbelieving eyes; and, although late, I called my sins to mind and was converted with