Furthermore, in this general advancement it is significant that woman has shared most largely and most conspicuously, laws having been passed in many countries which are the tokens of her final and complete emancipation from the thralldom of ages. In fact, she has instigated the revolution in her behalf; but underneath the mighty march of time is the eternal palpitation of justice, which insures to her those rights of which cruelty has deprived her but to which her humanity tenderly appeals.

Of striking significance in these days is the fact that Christian scholarship is more devoted to the maintenance of biblical truth than at any time in the history of the Church. In all ages and periods the Bible has run the gauntlet of criticism both from friends and foes, and that it has escaped unharmed is a guaranty of its future safety and influence. It is no new thing that a Christian scholar, under a new impulse or surrendering to false leadership, should lose his reckoning and follow the ignis fatuus of rationalism or skepticism, and deluge the Church with "advanced" and "liberal" notions of religion. Examples of such defection are numerous, but the Bible has never failed to bow them into obscurity or silence. It is an inspiring fact that in no age have the majority of scholars been inveigled into rationalistic uncertainty and doubt; on the contrary, they have boldly refuted antagonisms to the faith and upheld the inherited religion, so that the Church has survived its foes. The waves of skepticism that threaten every thing of value in our times, though violent and defiant, have spent their force, and the final result is their ebbing into nothingness and the permanency of the shore they attacked.

It may also be observed, in further encouragement, that since the Reformation the great principle of faith in Christ alone has steadily gained ground in Europe, and especially in America, and is spreading even to the effete lands of the Orient. Popery has received a fatal blow in the overthrow of its political supremacy, and cannot eventually resist the dominancy of the spirit of free thought and action which republicanism and intellectual independence have bred and fostered. The Bible cannot now be chained nor burned, and discussion is not repressible by the Inquisition. Roman Catholic countries, with scarcely an exception, are now open, by statute at least, and through governmental protection, to every evangelist or colporteur who may choose to enter and disseminate a pure gospel. By a series of remarkable providences heathen lands likewise have almost universally thrown down the barriers to the admission of missionaries, and the distant isles and remotest corners of earth seem to be looking to the English-speaking race especially for their political, scientific, and literary guidance, as well as for the arts and improvements of social, commercial, and mechanical prosperity. The Chinese wall has fairly been scaled, and Japanese exclusiveness has fully given way. Western civilization has become the rage in the most distant East with a rapidity that almost takes away our breath to keep pace with the march of events.

From this line of observation the transition is easy to the notice of the extraordinary vigor and success of missionary operations within the last quarter of a century. When it is remembered that these schemes were

inaugurated almost within the memory of the present generation, and that they have now become so powerful as to compel even counter-missions by false religions and infidels, we perceive the promise of these first-fruits of the grand harvest awaiting the laborers in the Master's field. Confucianism, Brahmanism, and Buddhism are confessedly obsolete, and Mohammedanism, though gasping for life, is staggering with decay and must crumble into dust. The first streaks of the millennial day seem to be brightening the horizon; and if the twentieth century shall advance at the rate of the nineteenth it will witness the cross firmly planted in all lands beneath the sun. The best of all is that the new converts are not now, as formerly under popish preachers, merely baptized pagans, but truly regenerate souls, well-founded in the spiritual truths and practice of evangelical Christianity. The time is rapidly approaching when the missionary lands of the Orient will be independent of the mother-Churches of the West, and themselves able to send out missionaries to still darker and more distant tribes of men. Even now the consistency and universality of the piety in many of these stations, and in some instances of whole regions, may well put to blush the degeneracy of communities where the Gospel has for ages held nominal sway. However much yet remains to be done we may well thank God and take courage for the good results already apparent, and for the prestige and prophecy that they afford for the near future. Certainly the facts in the case, under whatever aspect they are contemplated, call on Christians every-where to redouble their zeal, their prayers, their efforts, and their contributions in the cause of their Redeemer and their fellow-men.

Finally, we must not forget that, be the visible discouragements or encouragements what they may, in this, as in every other path of Christian enterprise and activity, we are still to "walk by faith, and not by sight." We should also remember that it is not by human power, though it be by human instrumentality, that success in the Master's field is to be achieved. His command requires, and his promise is to reward, the labor; his prophecy warrants it and his glory is to be attained by it. So long as the commission runs, "Preach the Gospel to every creature," and so long as the prediction stands, "To Him every knee shall bow," we have no right and no cause to relax our devotion or our exertions, no just reason for disheartenment, much less for despair. The task is really God's-its plan, its initiation, its progress, its resources, and its results; and he has pledged his word that the heathen shall be given the Son for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession.

In the faith that nothing can ultimately frustrate or eventually impede this issue, but holding that so long as there is a throne in heaven there will be a Church among men, we may joyfully toil on in darkness as in light, in the day of defeat as in the hour of triumph, praying with all enthusiasm, sacrificing with all cheerfulness, and at last dying with that hope that spans centuries and converts eternity into immortality.

RELATION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS TO CHRISTIAN LIFE.

IF, as Professor Birks teaches, it is correct to define ethics as "the science of ideal humanity," then Christianity must be that science, because its ethics contain the most comprehensive moral system known to mankind. This assumption does not claim that the Founder of Christianity formulated a complete code of rules for human conduct, since no fact is more patent to students of Holy Writ than the absence of such a code from the Gospel. In the Old Testament many rules for the regulation of external conduct are given, as for example in the Ten Commandments; but Christ, while giving a lesser number of precepts, taught principles, which are the grounds not only of the Mosaic laws of conduct, but also of all moral obligations. They are principles which recognize both the nature and obligation of "the good." They comprehend "the science of right conduct " and of pure character. They portray the ideally perfect ethical man, and show most beautifully that his moral perfection is, and must ever be, the flower of his spiritual development. "When his heart is spiritually surrendered, then his will becomes ethically obedient."

This is the moral science of the Gospel. It makes the regenerated heart the fountain of right ethical conduct. The natural heart, being the nest in which the germs of every immorality are nurtured, must be renewed in righteousness before it can become the birthplace of pure ethical purposes and deeds. But when it is transformed by becoming the dwellingplace of the Holy Spirit its impulses are toward righteous action. The divine indwelling Spirit strives to harmonize all its "inward affections and their practical outworking with his own mind." Thus the spirituallyminded man, by minding "the things of the Spirit," visibly conforms to the commands of God. Such is the law of the spirit of life. And this law makes it plain that, as Dr. Augustus H. Strong forcibly observes, "religion and morality are essentially one: faith and works are inseparable." Genuine spiritual life involves the highest morality in the life.

Whoever analyzes the source of the spiritual life recognizes the truths of the Gospel to be the seed which lie at its root. And those truths, operating on the intellect, expand those primary moral ideas which Christian philosophers regard as the mental data of the human consciousness. In all ages, in every part of the earth, human beings have intuitively associated the ideas of rightness and wrongness with certain classes of actions and dispositions. With the enlightenment of their reason, these moral judgments have been pronounced with increasing discrimination upon a larger number and variety of deeds. The correctness of these judgments has depended on the quality of the concepts which have, been the sources of their enlightenment. Erroneous conceptions have led to unsound moral distinctions. But where the Gospel, which contains the truth, is known, the moral judgments of men have been corrected. The mind of God has

so enlightened the minds of men, especially of those who have become temples of the Holy Ghost, that the divine will respecting human conduct is very distinctly understood. The highest morality is clearly revealed in the Gospel of the Son of God.

Nor is it through the understanding only that the indwelling Spirit influences the spiritual man toward the highest morality. It is the function of that Holy Comforter to quicken the conscience. In the natural man he enforces the moral judgment by creating a sense of obligation, which begets a feeling of condemnation when it is resisted, and of selfapprobation when it is obeyed. These feelings are of so peculiar a nature -so obviously from some authoritative source other than the man's own self-that he is obliged to recognize them as the product of a divine power. Properly interpreted, they are a revelation of God's will to the reason of the individual. But for the perversity of the human will they would lead men "to feel after Him" who thus reveals himself. But the natural man does his utmost to extinguish this divine light, while the spiritual man cherishes it. By sitting in its brightness he gains such clearness of moral perception, such delight in obeying its leadings, and such affinity with the eternal Spirit, that in his conduct he becomes a transcript of the spotless Redeemer, whom the indwelling Comforter represents.

Moreover, the spiritual man is stimulated to the attainment of the highest morality by his concept of the Redeemer's character and life. In him he sees that highest morality which is required of him as his duty realized in a human life. In him, therefore, he recognizes the possibility of such morality, clearly perceiving that it is not an impossibility. Jesus practiced it; and Jesus is to him more than an exemplar. He is the adored Friend whom he loves with an enthusiastic affection. His enthusiasm for that grand and gracious Being becomes, as James Martineau strongly expresses it, "a universal energy flooding his own soul." Inspired by this divine passion for the pure Christ, he aims at, yea, he attains to, the highest morality possible to mortal man.

In the teaching of the Christ one finds two principles which are fundamental to "the science of right conduct." Of these the first is, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself;" the second is, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." The former strikes at selfism, which is the root of all immorality; the latter reveals the affection from which flows that respect for the rights and that regard for the welfare of others which are implicit in truly moral acts. There is no immoral deed or dispo sition which may not be traced to an illicit degree of self-love-to a mind which, having refused to accept the divine will as the law of its life, lives in and for itself. Out of this rebellious spirit of self-rule proceeds every act of indulgence in forbidden things, every excessive use of things lawful within the limits of natural law, every intrusion upon the rights of others, and every scheme for acquiring gain by oppressive measures. How morally beautiful, how profoundly philosophical, therefore, is this first principle of Christian discipleship! For the surrender of selfism involves the destruction of all positive immorality; it also prepares the

soul for the growth of those moral virtues which are the ornaments of human nature. It is essential to the accomplishment of our Lord's expressed desire to "make the tree good and his fruit good."

But the surrender of selfism is not of itself sufficient to make the man truly moral. It excludes visible moral deformities from the life, but does not adorn it with those positive virtues which make men beautiful in the sight of the Christ and beneficial to their fellow-creatures. This good fruit must have love for its source. Nor is a merely natural affection sufficient to the production of that grand type of morality of which Christ was the one perfect example. Strong natural affection may bear the fruit of pity, sympathy, kindness, benevolence, and care for the temporal interests of suffering humanity; but it cannot rise to the height of that benevolent concern for both the spiritual and material interests of mankind which is comprehended in the ethics of Christianity. These ethics most certainly require conscientious avoidance of any act designed to injure one's neighbor's interests. But that neighbor, being a man, has both a higher and a lower nature. And if the law of love requires one, to respect and relieve the necessities of the latter, it surely cannot justify him who either neglects or injures the former. It must be as truly immoral to injure the one as it is to harm the other. Obviously, therefore, he who would rise to the height of his moral obligation must needs possess that divinely begotten love for man which, being rooted in the love of Christ, is capable of loving others as one loves one's self; of doing nothing to other men he would be unwilling they should do to him. And this, as our Lord teaches, is the morality of his religion—the ethics of Christianity.

How exceeding broad, therefore, is the scope of this divine concept of every Christian's ethical obligations! Viewed on its negative side, its surrender of selfism, how much it implies! The man who intelligently, honestly, and earnestly repudiates selfism as the law of his life casts off all those personal vices which had their origin in the corrupt affection he now repudiates. He renounces those habits of self-indulgence, those sins of the appetites, which are violations of physical law. He ceases to cherish those sins of the mind-such as pride, vanity, hatred, revenge, wrath, ambition, and covetousness-which are the corrupt fruits of the selfism which had hitherto been the law of his life. These necessarily drop from his soul when he places the corrupt affections which produced and nourished them at the feet of the Lord. The completeness of their disappearance will be proportioned to the absoluteness of his self-surrender. If that be hearty and unreserved, the "old things," the wrong affections hitherto dominant within him, will pass out of his life, and all things will become "new."

But a Christian's ethical obligations have a positive as well as a negative side. They require him to add to this crucifixion of his selfism a truly benevolent and practical regard for the welfare of humanity in general, and for such persons in particular as his environments bring within the touch of his personal action. Instead of doing any act to them which he would condemn if done to himself, his convictions of duty bind him to help 41-FIFTH SERIES, VOL. VIII.