makes no show of ecclesiastical dignity; it offers no priestly absolutions or benedictions; it has no indulgences. It is not wrapped in the phrases of the schools; it has no baits of intellect. Personal or scholastic, theological or sectarian claims are disallowed. Paul and Apollos are as nothing; the wisdom of the Greek, the pride of the Pharisee, are too narrow for it. Its words have the large freedom of truth; the stern, tender, healing grace of love; their limitation is but the limitation of the Kingdom of God. The doctrine is one of radical transformation. It sets free the spirit

from ceremonial bondage. It has no burden of external law to materialise it; it has the inward significance which makes it wholly spiritual, like the searching words of our Lord Himself. All that it offers of heavenly aid is for earthward service.

In this spirit the Epistles are in entire harmony with the Sermon on the Mount. The law of the new life, the glory of the new kingdom, is revealed in them both. The teaching is for the redemption of men; and they who disregard its facts as inwrought in human life build "on the sand."

This law of progress is not the imperfect rule of creeds, it is the law of that Divine Life itself which holds all things, and rules them in their issues. And this Kingdom is not the ecstatic vision of a few souls, vanishing with the centuries; but, as we have said, "the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith," executive through all the ages, whether men believe in it or not.

Thus, the doctrine becomes a basis whereon the nations may rest.

Judged from the secular ground, where objecting criticism rallies, no philosophy has ever won testimony of greater power than has accompanied these Letters. It would be hard to find any book of like potency for good. The only explanation which can be given of the fact is that of the writers, that God was with them. In multitudes of unknown and humble souls, have been wrought the influences and ideas which remake men, and in so doing gradually remould society. The highest thought, the most spiritual revelation is here made to minister to lowliest life, and to the The name and the work most ordinary duties. of Christ are translated into pleas for obedience and service in all common things. The type of character to which this teaching tends may be rarely perfected, but it is sovereign among men. All the virtues, all the graces, have appropriate place in it. These Letters-speaking still from the secular, non-theological point of view-have been of all writings the most directly instrumental in shaping the Christian Ideal. It is not a conventual or monastic round, whether within stone walls or restricted creeds, which they present as best; not a succession of unworldlike thoughts and sacrificial or ritual acts within fixed limits; but a life everywhere in contact with affairs, that can be patient and yet strong, endure and yet rejoice, know its own ignorance and yet be ever learning. It has no place for huge and selfish ambitions, for mean and miserable conceits; for greed, or show, or vain contentions. But this Ideal is substance, not dream; reality, not vision.

Nothing can be further from the conventional caricature of religion than the type portrayed in these Epistles. The men who wrote them were manly, as great leaders count manliness. Paul could reason on Mars Hill, or face a mob at Ephesus; talk calmly in an earthquake, and give counsel in shipwreck; "almost persuade" Agrippa, and yet count all things as loss that he might win Christ. The ripe, full words which he addresses to the Philippians, were the expression of his own endeavour; and nothing nobler can be written for any community of men to ponder :

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

Another conspicuous feature in the Epistles is their large humanity. They abound in touches of brotherhood. Their argument is never so intricate or lofty but it recognises the common lot; men are all one before it. In this also these Letters breathe the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount, and supply both social ideals and social inspirations. Paul saw men as they were, unhindered by prejudices. His words gave almost the sense of personal contact; the moods, the needs, of those he addresses are vividly reflected. He can rebuke or condemn; he can soothe or encourage; console or counsel; and is "all things to all men," with a wisdom that is one. Upon many an individual soul his broken phrase, his half-sentence, his single word, must have come with penetrating, sympathetic, divinely helpful power.

His picture of the ancient world is the picture that is found in its own historians and satirists. How to deal with the criminal classes is an ever recurring social question. How to satisfy the unemployed is ever a sore perplexity. How to distribute social good equally awaits a just judgment. But the world of that first century saw devilry enthroned; knew murder as a frequent form of death; and cared little for whole populations doomed to famine or the sword. These Letters nevertheless speak out their gospel with an unflinching courage. The clouds, though they rain deluges of blood, shall break; through all the darkness comes the glimmer of a new hope that shall some day shine full-orbel. upon word of healing life falls on the manuscript as these men write. It was "while we were yet sinners," "when we were enemies," that "Christ died for us." It is not only forgiveness, but redemption which He brings. This is the inspiring

message.

Word

How wonderful, yet how characteristic, for instance, is the Epistle to the Ephesians, addressed to those who once were "dead in trespasses and sins," fulfilling their own desires, "by nature the children of wrath even as others," whom yet Paul calls "to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge." It is as though from "the lower deep

still opening wide" there were a ladder to the highest heaven. And this is not mere exaltation of mind or mere extravagance of doctrine. There is a verifying experience. Much of the most successful social work of modern times has had its inspiration here.

No pessimist of to-day had ever more real sense of the evil in the world than had Paul. He knew the intensity of the struggle involved in any attempt to conquer it. His call is "to be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might." And why? "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." He was not troubled with ideas of Destiny and Circumstance, of Twin Powers, or Divided Rule; but he confronted the appalling vision of Evil in the name of Him who has the mastery. He has described the two natures warring within himself, and his bitter cry, "O wretched man that I am!" has been heard down through the ages. "So fight I,” he tells us in allusion to his own prudential discipline. Yet he saw afar off "laid up" the "crown of righteousness," a symbol of victory and sovereign good. He suffered with "the whole creation groaning and travailing in pain together until now;" but he knew "the earnest expectation of the creature" which "shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." Again and again this sense of the final emancipation brightens in his words. He recognised the laws of continuous life, inwrought in nature, as of sowing and reaping, as this generation does of heredity, which makes of every birth in degree a resurrection. But he insisted on "the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus," as making men "free from the law of sin and of death." All the mysteries of being he judged by eternal issues; and stronger than all raging evil he held " the love of God, which is

in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Count Tolstoy has said that impatience is one of the chief hindrances to progress. In these Letters patience has a large place. The interventions that shall be are reserved to the ordering of Divine providence; but though Paul himself was struck down on the road to Damascus, the instantaneous, the sudden, the revolutionary has no part in his teaching. The progress he preaches is rather the development of life from within, in obedience to the manifold laws of growth. The conditions of that age did not allow of more. Let social reformers study the twelfth and thirteenth chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, and say where can be found any counsels better for men and nations. How these ideas did become actually operative, and what they gradually wrought, is part of history.

A people that are "not slothful in business," that keep under the body," that live honestly and walk humbly, that speak truthfully and subdue anger, that love their enemies, and care for other men as themselves, and shrink not from loss or death in their devotion to Christ: this is the Christian community as Paul would have it, these are his "living epistles known and read of

all men." This was the social programme of early Christianity; and the Christianity which does not bear like fruits to-day is spurious. A Christianity which could mould men to this practice, would speedily solve all social problems. Not that these duties make the whole of life, but that they are basis for it. If the doctrine of these Letters seems to some later minds to make this simplicity mystical or unreal, it may be answered that the Christian Doctrine is the inspiration which makes it practicable. The world cannot know the blessedness of the Beatitudes without it. It supplies impulse and motive, it quickens perception in relation to social duties as nothing else does, it reanimates weary man with hope, and it assures him of direct aid from God Himself. The very graces which Paul describes as "the fruit of the Spirit ""love, joy, peace, long-sufering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance". the charity which is more than sounding brass or clanging cymbal-are not these in themselves among the choicest of social possessions?

No one questions the perfect unity of teaching in all that relates to the brotherhood of men, whether it be Paul who speaks; or James who says, "Have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons"; or John who asks, "Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him"? or Peter who interprets.

Who, indeed, that desires social progress could lay its foundations more securely than does the Apostle Peter?

"Adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue; and in your virtue knowledge; and in your knowledge temperance; and in your temperance patience; and in your patience godliness; and in your godliness love of the brethren; and in your love of the brethren love. For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful unto the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he that lacketh these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins. Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble: for thus shall be richly supplied unto you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter i. 5-11 (R.V.)).

Truth has its Godward side. There is infinitely more implied in the teaching of Paul than is gathered here. As was said of the "things which Jesus did, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written," so the volumes and treatises that have gone forth in exposition of these Epistles are beyond numbering. Their deeper spiritual doctrine, covering the whole sphere of man's nature, and unveiling the mysteries of the Divine purpose, no study has yet exhausted. We are concerned here only with their time-ward aspect, as they affect social issues now keenly debated; but on these words of the Apostle Peter

there is the light of the Eternal. Whatever the present, the future is near, and the hopes or the fears that pertain to it are a mighty factor in the history of the race. If it were possible to blot out "heaven" and "hell" as words of an extinct past, they would reappear. The belief in immortality has been among the greatest of regenerating influences. Where it is strongest, men ascend; where it is weakest, they decline. This vision of the "Everlasting Kingdom" has given dignity, patience, courage, to many a feeble endeavour It has brought victory to strong arms, and confidence to sad hearts. It has made passivity possible in the face of oppression, and brought a glory of hope to the darkest circumstances.

One other fact remains to be noted. The men of to-day combine. Ideas become the nucleus of societies. Organisations arise that are cumbrous and strong as armies. Men lean upon each other, and contend for principles in bodies that may be variously counted. In this they do but obey a social necessity. The men of that elder time knew also the value of such brotherhood. But their communities were small, as nothing beside the heathen crowds which surrounded them. They were sometimes isolated- —a handful in a city, it might be; or alone, one here, one there, possibly in solitary peril. They did not lean upon each other, but upon God. Their souls grew the stronger for this great, lonely trust. "The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit" (2 Tim. iv. 22). This

was the benediction which brought them energy. In estimating the social forces that have sprung from Christianity, and helped mankind, this energy of soul, sustained by faith in Christ Jesus, reckons among the most powerful. These first Christians were not bound by the letter. It was not creed that saved them. They trusted in the living God, and were not confounded.

Modern culture-let no one disparage it-may bow down before these men. All our philosophies have not achieved so much. Science, the great revealer, the sure prophet of a new future, has not so spoken to human hearts. Art, winged with aspiration, beautiful, splendid, free, has nothing to show that can compare in healing influence with the service of these despised Christians. The easy indifference, the light scorn of cultivated society, does not bless the world as they did. It were folly to relegate these Epistles to ecclesiastical uses only. On the lowest range, where Culture itself might judge them, they are among the greatest pieces of literature, and regarded even as "human documents" they are of inestimable value. Moreover, from the standpoint of the social reformer, they have done more than any other writings to secure the equal rights of men. Nor is this all. Transcendently more is the revelation they enshrine, which makes Etern'ty the inspiration and Test of Time, and subjects all human endeavour to the Kingship of the Christ, "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."

The Goodwins.

To-day we are bound for both the North Sand Head and the East Goodwin Lightships. The North Sand Head Lightship lies about a mile from the northernmost point of the Goodwin Sands. She is within sight of the surf, and within hearing of the roar of the Goodwins. She lies about seven miles from the nearest land and is ten miles distant from Deal.

We take a larger boat on these occasions than our own mission-boat, good boat though she be, and though we have often visited this very lightship in her. But as it is a matter of considerable risk to go seven miles from land in an open boat, and still more a matter of risk to sail round the Goodwins-ten miles off the land-this voyage taking twelve hours, during which time any change in the weather may occur-we now make it a rule to take a larger boat; an open boat, indeed, but still a much more powerful boat than

our own.

This larger boat requires an extra man, and the additional hand usually is R. Roberts, the farfamed coxswain of the Deal lifeboat, and himself the owner of the galley-punt, thirty feet long and seven feet beam, in which we are this day afloat.

The writer is the steersman, and we sweep outwards and northwards before a strong flood-tide, and a good breeze that swells our great sail into curves of canvas, under the pressure of which the sharp boat curtseys to the wind and hisses through the parting waves.

Sheet, halyard, bowline and backstay, were all tight as fiddle-strings, and, humming to the increasing wind, the noble boat leans over till the bubbling water boils up in an arch over her lee gunwale, without, however, a drop getting aboard, and then, as she "springs her luff," comes upright again in her onward flight.

We doubled the southern extremity of the Brake Sand, and came into the deep water in the stream of the Gull Lightship, for which vessel I had some newspapers, to throw aboard her as we hauled down sail and slowly ran past her with the tide.

All round us sailed the ships of various nations. Here is an outward-bound Italian; the sheer of her hull, her crooked martingale and general cut, stamp her unmistakably as such. She is bound, probably, to Cardiff for a cargo of coals, and, as a glance tells you, she is light or in ballast. She is bowling along with her main-royal set, at the rate of six or seven knots an hour, and we are passing her in the opposite direction at the same rate.

Here, again, we have between us and the low-lying land a Guernsey schooner, deep-laden with stone. She is close-hauled, and beating up for London against the N.W. wind which is helping us out to the lightship. We often catch a vessel of this kind under full sail. If we sail at her we must go to windward of her to avoid her mainboom, which of course swings a little to leeward, and might easily get entangled in our rigging, or carry away our mast, if we went that side under sail. But if we have time enough to haul down sail and unship our mast, we go to leeward of her, and, keeping a little ahead of her, pull with all our might at our oars, the chaplain steering as well as pulling, until we almost touch her—not her cutwater, or she would drive us clean under— and get our boarding-hook, with towline attached, into her chains or rigging. This done the chaplain resigns the helm of the mission-boat and jumps aboard the moving vessel. Books are left, a precious text is repeated and pressed, a hymn, perhaps, is sung, and a short prayer is said on deck, and five minutes afterwards the mission-boat is half a mile astern, riding alone on the waste of waters.

On this occasion, however, we visited no passing vessel, but stood on for the still distant North Sand Head Lightship.

Now we plunge into the very lumpy sea round the lonely N.W. Goodwin buoy; through that, we skirt the N.W. edge of the Goodwins, give the tossing breakers on it a wide berth; and slacking our sheet we run between the little shallow patch called by the boatmen "Sawney's Knoll," but given in the charts as "Goodwin Knoll"—and the Goodwins themselves.

In the deep water beyond this we had previously come across the foreyard of a vessel which was evidently fastened to the bottom by wire rigging, and was one moment sucked three feet under the surface, and the next instant hoisted point upwards as much out of the water by the whole force of its buoyancy. A touch of this huge spar's point would have sunk us in a very awkward place, but it had disappeared, and in ten more minutes we got sight of, and then rapidly, as it seemed, heaved up to the hull of the lightship we were making for.

No one can understand the interest which our visit to a remote vessel of this kind causes to ourselves and to the crew of the vessel, unless they realise to some extent the distance of the land, which has faded to a dim low bank of cloud, the stretch of water we have traversed, with its roughs, and smooths, and eddies, and unless in imagination they can see the ships that pass, and almost hear the bellowing of the great Goodwins hard by us, of which this lonely lightship is the outlying and northern sentinel.

While we are still far off, the lightship crew recognize the mission-boat and flag on the cock