pray, the Bible has done more for you than any other book ever attempted to do; this is a human book, a book for the nursery, the family, the marketplace, the Parliament, the Universe!

All this is wayside talk. We loiter here to pluck a few flowers, and it is interesting and pleasant to do so; but we are on the road. Presently we read, "Thou shalt not disturb a bird's nest that is on the ground"; "Thou shalt not seethe the kid in his mother's milk"; "Thou shalt not cut down a fruit-tree." All the way through, the spirit of care-taking and love, conservatism and preservation, a word spoken on behalf of the weak, and the lonely, and the defenceless, and him that hath no friend. I wonder what it means; it means something. I will read this romance a page at a glance; all through the same spirit; the answer will come presently. And on and on we read until we see a great Cross set up, and hear a rude voice saying, 46 He saved others"-aye, that's what He has been doing. "He saved others "I know it; I have seen Him. 'Himself He cannot save"-no, He cannot. It is the " not" of omnipotence, the impossibility of almightiness. That is the meaning of it all-the CROSS! God has been taking care of strangers-aye, and of birds, and of oxen, and of young lambs in the flock-all the way through; and now the sum total of it is-"The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost."

can

If you had gone up to the Cross right away along the historical line, mile by mile, you would have found it the natural culmination of a series of interventions, which expositions and which interventions give a new significance and a keener accent to the tragedy and mystery of the Cross.

"Is meditation, those who begin heavenly thoughts and prosecute them not, are like those who kindle a fire under green wood and leave it as soon as it begins to blaze."-Hall.

"PRAYER is the key of heaven, and faith is the hand that turns it."- Watson.

THE ECONOMICS OF CHRISTIANITY. BY REUBEN JEFFERY, D.D., IN THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, Denver, COLORADO.

To what purpose is this waste?-Mat

thew xxvi: 8.

A LOVING Woman, as an expression of her devotion to Jesus, anointed His feet with a box of costly ointment. This service was criticised by Judas on the twofold ground that it was a wasteful expenditure and a diversion of so much money from the care of the poor. This censure was just such a criticism as we would expect a man like Judas to make. The few incidents given of his character prepare us to believe that his soul was never stirred by lofty sentiments. He was too groveling ever to rise to the love of the beautiful and the sublime, either in nature, or in art, or in religion. He was too selfish and penurious ever to have given a penny to promote an aesthetic or benevolent enterprise. So base was he, that he even robbed the funds entrusted to him by his brethren for the poor, and appropriated their contributions to the gratification of his own sordid proclivities. Society has always been afflicted with a class of carpers like Judas. If the poor had no better friend, they would be left to die of starvation, and if virtue had no nobler promoters, vice and crime would be perpetually epidemic.

Among the several attempts to give concrete expressions to grand ideals, those associated with Christianity have been pre-eminently subjected to these kinds of assaults. Its ideals have been denounced as superstitions, its institutions as wasteful expenditures, and its agencies as so many abstractions from eleemosynary contributions.

Now these criticisms would lodge with much greater force if it could be shown that the evils of society would be lessened if Christianity were obliterated, or if facts demonstrated that the opposers of Christian entérprises were themselves moved with superior inspirations to organize and carry on agencies of beneficence. Nay, we could listen to these censurers with more patience if

it were not too true, alas! that the men who make them are, to a large extent, the abettors and promoters of the very evils they affect to deplore. History proves, however, that apart from Christianity, no age has ever presented the spectacle of any permanently organized movements to alleviate distress, or minify the evils that have cursed mankind. True, within the present century a few godless efforts in this direction have been undertaken, but they have been, at the best, only spasms of philanthropy, and in their results have proven, like Fourierism, for example, Utopian in conception, and fraught with practical evils even greater than those they sought to correct. But, even granting to such enterprises a benevolent impulse, it would not be difficult to show that they have never been undertaken, except in lands where Christianity had already inculcated the spirit of beneficence. Nor are such philanthropic movements free from the suspicion that their ani. mus has not been a genuine sympathy with suffering, but rather a hostile attempt to throw discredit on the beneficent character claimed by Christian people for Christian principles.

I grant you that there have been periods when historic Christianity has presented sad defections from the sublime ideals of beneficence which its theories inculcated; but the explanation of these phases is not to be found in the falsity of the principles themselves, but in the fact that the Church has been loaded down with the superstitions imposed upon it by the idolatries of preceding generations, or cursed by leaders who were utterly and shamelessly destitute of the spirit of Christianity itself. And the marvel is that Christianity has survived these terrible combinations of corruption within and assault from without.

Christianity, however, has demonstrated its inherent vitality by its ability to survive and surmount these drafts upon its energies. Especially have this survival and reinvigoration asserted themselves during the present century. Never as to-day were the ac

tivities of Christian beneficence so numerous and so vigorous; never was the power of Christian principles to permeate and bless society so potent and apparent; and that, too, despite the taunt that Christianity was proving a failure, and destined to disappear before the oncoming era of social wellbeing. That such a grand era is coming we doubt not; but in the day when its consummation shall be reached, mankind will have learned that the result is a fulfillment of that song of peace and good-will that the angels sung at the birth of the Babe of Bethlehem. In that day the hitherto discordant notes of censure and denunciation of the religion of the Nazarene will, like the voices of many waters, join in the grand acclaim of blessing, and honor to the name of that Jesus whose mission it was to lift up humanity from its degradation and to bequeath the blessings of universal brotherhood.

Thus far in the history of our race the forces that have worked for evil have dominated, and their activities are still exerting malevolent power. Who can depict the woes that have followed in the wake of intemperance, fraud and lust? Who can estimate the waste of life, of happiness, and of money, occasioned by the baser passions of our natures? With what energies have the enemies of Christianity appropriated even the forces of our civilization in order to work the ruin of their fellows? On the other hand, who does not know that Christian principles make for economy and thrift; for the purity of morals; for the spread of education; for the ennobling of taste, and the culture of our tenderest sensibilities? And, while we do not disparage the helpfulness derived from the agencies of science and literature, yet it cannot be denied that these very agencies are being seized upon by the vampires of society in order to give intensity to their power for evil.

And let the enemies of Christianity say what they will against the truth of its dogmas or the methods of its oper

ations, yet the fact remains beyond the possibility of dispute, that the only aggressive force that is engaged in stemming the tide of corruption, and is seeking to pour into every avenue of society the healing streams of salvation, is that which centers in and radiates from the churches of Jesus Christ; and every day the activities of Christian beneficence are multiplying in number and power. The last hundred years have witnessed a marvelous revival of spiritual life. The churches have awakened from the slumber of ages, and have armed themselves for a contest with the powers of evil. Time would fail me to give statistics of the forces that have been organized, and victories that bave been achieved. Christian people are beginning to learn as never before that the form of service which is most acceptable to God is that which is most beneficial to man. Under the leadership of William Carey the Baptists awoke Christendom to the work of carrying the Gospel to heathen lands, and to-day all over the distant portions of the globe, the soldiers of the cross are carrying the banners of salvation. Heathen temples are crumbling into dust. The cruelties of heathen rites are disappearing, and the nations sunken in the degradation of heathenism are being blessed by the light and health of Christian civilization. The preaching of Wesley and Whitfield in England and of Edwards and Tennent in America has resulted in starting into operation thousands of activities that are conspiring to regenerate society.

In every considerable city or village of the United States the members of Christian churches, by every conceivable method, are inaugurating movements for the repression of vice, for the reclamation of the lost, for the relief of the poor, for the care of destitute children, for the reforming of drunkards, for the bringing back of fallen women to purity and peace. Think of the thousands of men and women going down in the slums of deg dation, visiting the prisons, climb

ing into garrets, descending into cellars, in order to give bread to the hungry, clothing to the naked, comfort to the sorrowing, ministry to the sick, the dying and the dead.

And now tell me, who are these people engaged in these missions of mercy? Are they the men and women who spend their lives in luxury and dissipation? Are they the men and women who support the dens of infamy? Are they the men and women who denounce the Church and boast of their non-attendance upon its services? Nay, verily. Rather, they are the men and women who kneel at the altars of the living God, who trust in Jesus Christ for the pardon of their sins, and their hope of heaven, and whose souls have been touched by the fire of His divine compassion.

And, again, let me ask, who are the best friends of the higher forms of education?

Let statistics answer: In 1878 there were in the United States 376 collegiate institutions; of these, 64 were non-denominational and 312 were supported by the various Christian denominations of the land. In the founding and endowing of these institutions of learning, the churches of the country have given not less than $68,000,000.

It is not our purpose to-night to discuss the question, whether the Bible is of divine inspiration or of human device; whether its teachings concerning God and Jesus Christ and a future life are true or false. So far as my present argument is concerned, infidelity and atheism may have the truth on their side; but what I assert is this: outside of Christianity, history proves that human nature is destitute of any power of self-regeneration, and that the vitalizing agencies for the promotion of the humanities of society have centered in Christian churches, and been disseminated by men and women who have believed in the truths of the Christian religion And what I ask is this: How is it that the opposers of Christianity have either been lukewarm and indifferent in regard to humanitarian move

ments, or proven the most active agents in sustaining institutions that give increase to vice, crime, wretchedness and despair?

The impression seems to prevail that a belief in God engenders an indifference to man; that love for Christ evaporates into vague and senseless sentimentalities, and that the rapture of faith in the unseen realities of the life to come, lifts its votaries above all concern for the woes and wants of the life that now is.

And our proposition is that Christianity is unique in this singular and exceptional respect that it inspires men with the ideals of spiritual life whose effects express themselves in forms of practical sympathy with the material, social and æsthetic conditions of the present life. It proves itself to be a force that lifts up humanity to higher planes of terrestrial well-being in the proportion in which it inspires them with conceptions of the realities and glories of the unseen world. And for this reason, and by this process, it proves itself to be the only power that is earnest and active in relieving the distresses of pauperism; in reducing the force and number of the evils that lead to pauperism; in giving the highest forms of beauty to art, whether as expressed in marble or on canvas; in tuning music and poetry to their loftiest strains; in pervading jurisprudence with the commingled temper of justice and mercy; in imparting purity and stability to the family relation; in inciting to righteousness in the reciprocities of trade; in adorning social intercourse with amenities and grace; in lifting manhood into self-respect and nerving individual character to struggles after the attainment of all those traits that make for peace of mind and kindness of feeling as the permanent factors of personal experience. Surely, whatever may be our various theories concerning the abstract propositions of theology, every noble and generousminded man will acknowledge that money spent in the support of institutions consecrated to these beneficent

ends, is not a waste. And surely appeals to such for aid to carry on these enterprises will find a sympathetic and practical response in the heart of every lover of his race.

Christianity as a beneficent force differs essentially from the two forces that are set to oppose its progress. Superstition has demanded and secured costly outlays in the erection of magnificent temples and the maintenance of gorgeous ceremonials; but it appeals only to the sensuous and selfish fears of its votaries. It has exhibited a contempt uous indifference to their sufferings and degradations, and has taught them to believe that contributions to its appointments purchased an immunity from retribution, and a liberty of indulgence in the orgies of debauchery and crime. Naturalism assumes the ability and disposition of human nature to improve itself. It proclaims the sufficiency of reason, enlightened by education and polished by culture, to quicken men into noble aspirations and into generous sympathies. But the experiment of the ages has demonstrated the fallacy of the pretense and the powerlessness of the undertaking.

Rome, in her palmiest days, extended her military empire over the nations of the earth, and by her extortions from the conquered provinces she built those magnificent palaces, theatres and viaducts which made her capital the admiration of the world. She sought to amuse the masses by spectacular exhibitions of obscenity, and theatrical displays in which unarmed slaves and prisoners were compelled to fight for their lives with beasts of prey. Her palaces were fitted up with every device that could give zest to unchastity and expenditure in every extravagance of luxurious indulgence, while her toiling masses were denied the rights that are now accorded to the beasts of the field, and were left to perish under the stress of poverty, and rot in the stench of their degradation.

Greece has furnished to the race men who have given the highest specimens of philosophy, poetry and art which

the human mind, unaided by inspiration, has ever been able to attain. But her philosophies have been only sublime guesses and fraught with no utilitarian advantages. Her art has only given beauteous expression to lustful conceptions, and her poetry has only celebrated the glories of war and the attractions and intrigues of passion. In fact, the philosophers of human nature have been in every instance destitute of inspirations to beneficent and disinterested actions.

Naturalism talks of bettering the condition of society, but fails every time. The reason is that its only basis of appeal to the benevolent emotions is the reflex advantage to human selfishness. It calls upon you to be good and to be beneficent, simply because experience shows that the prevalence of vice and crime gives insecurity to life, property and rights. Its only standard of duty is self-interest, and its only inspiration to beneficence is self-protection.

Christianity, on the other hand, kindles the passion of disinterested benevolence. It awakens a sense of uniVersal brotherhood. It reveals the transcendent secret that they only find the true life who lose their selfish lives in the love of doing good for its own sake. It constrains men not to count their own possessions or their own lives dear unto themselves, if so be they can give supply to the needy; if so be they impart consolation to the sorrowing or relief to those who are in distress; if so be they can save men from pathways of ruin and displace the agencies that work wretchedness to homes, dangers to society, and guilt to individual consciences, and in their stead inaugurate conditions of happy families, social well-being, and personal self-respect, peace and hope. And all these things it leads men to undertake with no expectation of reward or even gratitude; nay, despite reproaches and cursings from the recipients of their overtures of kindness and Sympathy, and solely because their hearts have been kindled into

sympathy with the spirit of that divine Master who went about doing good, and gave His life for His enemies. Naturalism, which is only another name for godlessness, can furnish no such inspiration and no such exemplar.

Christianity claims to be more than a revelation of dogma. It is an inspiration of life acting upon human nature from without, coming down from a supersensuous realm, and transforming character by an energy that is divine. Revealing the personality of a God infinite in every perfection, it makes His will the authoritative standard of moral conduct. It tells us that the nature of God is essentially love, manifesting His passion in the bounteousness of His provisions for the sustenance of the race; in His tenderness toward the suffering and His mercy toward the guilty. It calls men to reformation by offering pardon to guilt, and to nobler lives by the example of a divine incarnation. It offers help to feebleness by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It opens the gates of immortality and holds out crowns of glory hereafter to those who realize in this world characters assimilated to the spirit of its heaven-born enkindlings. In a word, Christianity is from above. It is the life of divine love coming down from heaven, dwelling among men and transforming a sin-cursed world into the paradise of God.

Ages long, long ago this planet swung through space a cold and desolate globe, black in Cimmerian darkness. To-day it is enswathed in the warmth and light of a genial atmosphere. Its surface is covered with verdure, herbage and fruit, and teems with myriad forms of life. And what has wrought this marvelous change? I answer, no process of atheistic evolution has melted its icy seas; no such process of evolution has turned its darkness into effulgence; no such process of evolu tion has caused the earth to bring forth its variety of product; no such process of evolution has painted its skies with gorgeous tints of beauty; no such process of evolution has peopled it with