and cold of winter. The churches, chapels and schools are generally closed, except for purposes in which the mass of people feel no interest. It is a terrible thing to say, but to many it is no wonder that these men bless the public-house which curses them, and bitterly oppose those who would shut it up."

In an article in the Nineteenth Century of February, 1887, the writer, an authority on the subject, says: "They (the artisans) see the churches well built and nearly always shut up; they see the public-houses, towering above their own small houses, blazing at every turn, and always open; they see their own small rooms, often badly built, always too small for even the little furniture and often large families."

Some time ago I was going down a main thoroughfare of the city in which I then resided, when I saw about thirty men who were at work in some way about the road, laying drains or something of that sort It was dinner-hour, and there in the pelting rain they sat eating their provision about as dreary and cheerless a set as one could see. In that road, within a mile, there were no less than five places of worship. But the very nearest was that of which I was then the minister. I at once got the schoolroom opened, and bade the men welcome; promised it should be at their service so long as they were anywhere near; and had a fire at which they could warm their coffee and themselves. I told them that they were at perfect liberty to smoke after dinner, but the whole time not a man touched a pipe within the walls. It was the instinct of a true gentleman, awakened by a little act of kindness. When their work lay further down the road another place was similarly opened to receive them. Now comes the interesting part of the story. On the Sunday some of those men walked a long way and endured the infliction of a sermon, because, as one

explained, "You see one good turn deserves another." I certainly much appreciated the kindness of that good turn. Of this be sure, though it was so little a matter-a cost of half-acrown for extra cleaning covering the whole outlay-those men will henceforth carry a more kindly feeling toward the religion of Jesus Christ.

Let us pray earnestly for the Christlike brotherliness toward men, and opportunities of service will not be lacking.

Another thing which assuredly should be seen to, and that very speedily, is the neglect of the godly poor by the churches. Surely Christ our Master is alike astonished and indignant at the extent to which we lavish money upon the fabric in which we worship Him, and leave the poor members of His Churchby their very religion refined and sensitive to the miseries of pauperism. It takes a vast advocacy, which is but slightly successful, to rouse the Church to think about consecrating one-tenth of the income to all religious uses. The Jews gave three-tenths, and one-tenth was wholly for the poor. The only direction in the New Testament about "laying by" is in relation to the poor. The three religious organizations that wholly support their poor are the Jews, who are a great deal nearer to the religion of Jesus Christ than are most Christians in this respect, at any rate; the Friends, and the Plymouth Brethren; the three that spend the least upon luxurious worship. May we not insist upon this as a mark of a true Church, since Jesus Christ has made it again and again the test of our religion? How immediately this Christlike care for the poor followed upon the baptism of power! Turn to the fourth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, the thirty-third and thirty-fourth verses: "And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus;

and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked; for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them down at the apostles' feet; and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need."

The first appointment of officers in the Christian Church was to this care of the poor; and the seven deacons were appointed "to serve the tables."

How significant is the contrast in St. Mark's record of how, whilst the disciples were marvelling at the manner of the stones, Jesus was far more interested in a certain poor widow who came bringing her gift to the treasury! The fabric, however costly and beautiful, has little charm for Jesus beside a living, loving heart.*

Well may we ask, startled and

*Any religious community which does not provide for its own poor-that is, for those who, in happier times, have consistently maintained a religious confession in communion with it-stands self-condemned. The relief of such is the special business of the pastor and officers of the church; and if

alarmed, Is it the Church of to-day which shall stand at the closed door, vainly crying, "Open unto us, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?" Is it to these that He will say, "Depart from me. . . . I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in. . . . Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me."

When once, and only once, Christ lifted the veil of the world beyond, it was to reveal one tormented in the "white heat of God's indignation," whose offence was not that he was rich-Abraham was as rich as Dives, perhaps richer-his sin was in this, that he found life's good in his goods, and not in doing good; and that he left his poor brother at his gate, unpitied, unrelieved.

any poor member is suffered by them to fall into such want as to be compelled to apply for extraneous alms or parish relief, the church is convicted of want of brotherly love, has denied the Christian faith, and is worse than infidel. —“Social Wreckage," by F. Peck.

THY holy will be done, most gracious Lord;
Thou knowest well that this is all my wish.
Not what my human heart might weakly
choose,

Without Divine direction, do I ask,—
But just whatever Thou dost deem it best
To send me; though my earthly life thus hold
More grief than gladness; and although,
instead

Of strength that finds its joy in active work, There comes to me the weakness that must wait

With folded hands. Only, O Master dear, Even in feebleness let me be used

For Thy blest purposes. Wielded by Thee The frailest instrument becomes a power; If Thou inspire, infants can utter praise; The lowliest and weakest of Thy children, Ordained of Thee, may speak Thy messages: TORONTO.

Dear Lord, give me a share, if such Thy will, In this sweet service; whisper to my soul Thy cheering words, and let them minister Through me to other hearts. But if, instead, Thou choose to lay Thy finger on my lipsSo they be closed for Thee I am content; For Thou canst make their very voicelessness To honour Thee, the while I wait Thy will, E'en here and now.

And when, some happy day, Thou call'st me to the land where sorrow yields

Its place to joy unmixed; weakness is lost
In perfect strength; and still submissiveness
Changes to eager action-I shall rise,
Sound forth Thy praise, and gladsome serve
Thee with

Unwearying powers.

CHRISTIANITY has done so much for woman that it is difficult for us to realize how much. When Chris

tianity came into this world, woman was the slave-it would often be literally correct to say the chattel -first of her father, then of her husband. Even in the most civilized countries she had practically no personal rights at all. Such rights as she did possess were hers, not for her own sake, but for the benefit of her father, her husband, or her son. She was practically treated as the toy or the drudge of the particular man who happened to have legal possession of her. Jesus Christ was distinguished from all other great leaders of thought and religion by the marked courtesy and reverence with which He treated woman. From Him she invariably received nothing but respect and kindness; and it is an interesting and delightful fact that, so far as we know, no woman ever persecuted Him, or did Him any injury, or deserted Him after becoming His disciple. His relation to the other sex was one of unbroken peace and good-will. Woman had no share in the wrongs and cruelties which ultimately broke His heart. He alone of all great Oriental teachers denounced and abolished forever polygamy, which under all circumstances must be the degradation of woman. He introduced into marriage its tenderness and its sacredness, and, in so doing, created for the first time in human history a true home. It is only so far as the influence of Christ extends that woman receives, either from her husband or from her children, the respect and reverence, and therefore the real affection, to which she is entitled.

What a contrast all this is to the

most conspicuous facts in the lives and teaching of other leaders of mankind! Buddha began his remarkable career by the cowardly and disgraceful abandonment of his wife and child. The relation of Socrates to his wife is the darkest blot on his memory; even at the solemn close of his life, when his wife and children were weeping over him, what harshness he displayed in his references to them, and in his command that they should be removed from his presence! Of the infamous teaching of Mohammed with respect to woman, I need say nothing. No one, until Christ came, recognized and proclaimed the true sphere and mission of woman; and, indeed, Christ's teaching with respect to woman was so unheard-of and so revolutionary that it is only at the close of the nineteenth century of the Christian era that Christians themselves are beginning to act upon it. All through the Christian centuries until now, the teaching of the Christian Church with respect to woman has been largely heathen, in the very teeth of the doctrine and the example both of Christ and His apostles.

One of the most curious delusions respecting woman current in the Christian Church is a total misapprehension of the teaching of St. Paul on this subject. He has been supposed to advocate a subjection on the part of woman which the enlightened conscience of our own time resents and denies. But this interpretation of certain sentences used by St. Paul is wholly erroneous. There is nothing in the Scriptures itself more exalted than the true doctrine of St. Paul with respect to woman. He asserts, indeed, that as Christ is the Head of the Church, so

is man the head of woman; but what does that mean? Christ is not the Head of the Church to lord it over the Church, or to take advantage of the Church, or to use the Church for His own personal advantage; but in order that He may give all that He has to the Church, and to exalt the Church to share His own throne and His own joy. In like manner, argues St. Paul, the highest mission of man is to lift up woman to the full enjoyment of all the authority and all the happiness of which he himself is capable. There is no reflection upon woman in stating that it is the duty of man so to lift her up, because, as a matter of fact, in all heathen lands, and in all so-called Christian lands where the teaching of Christ is not vet accepted, woman is degraded. The selfishness of man has taken advantage of her physical weakness, and also of the way in which beautiful and sacred maternal duties handicap her in the mere struggle of existence, to degrade her and to wrong her. Now, the essential duty of the Christian man is to do the exact opposite, and ultimately to create a social order in which no degraded savage of the male sex will be able to take advantage in any way of the physical weakness of woman.

Every man's true position in the scale of real greatness is determined by his attitude and relation to woman. Any man who despises woman, or disparages woman, or takes any advantage of woman, may boast much of his honour, and of his wisdom, and of his greatness; but he is really a degraded and contemptible savage. All moral progress for man depends upon the extent to which he accepts and imitates our Lord's treatment of woman. And the true position of all communities in the scale of civilization is determined by the legal position which they concede to woman. In our own day the teaching of Christ

has suddenly taken possession of the best men in all communities. During the last thirty years the Christian movement in relation to woman has made greater progress than during the preceding seventeen centuries. We are rapidly realizing the truth of St. Paul's teaching; and the most characteristic as well as the most revolutionary fact in the modern life of civilized communities is the way in which the personal rights of woman are being recognized in all directions.

There is not sufficient space at my disposal to enumerate all the astonishing ways in which, for the first time in history, woman is being emancipated from the servitude to which heathenism had doomed her. Neither is it necessary to enumerate them, they are so patent, so well known. Indeed, we are so familiar with them that we scarcely realize the change that has taken place in the lifetime of the present generation. Let anyone try to realize the advance which has been made in the direction of educating the minds of women. Now, for the first time in human history, woman is being educated. In the primary schools of England no heathen sex distinction is now made. The girl is treated exactly like the boy. In secondary schools this is also the case. Even in our universities the barbarous distinction of the sexes is rapidly disappearing.

Then, again, with respect to the various occupations, poor women have always been obliged to work for their livelihood; but, after a fierce resistance from reactionaries of all sorts, the learned professions themselves are now opening to women. I need not dwell on the extraordinary and increasing degree in which women participate in Church and public life. The Society of Friends and the Salvation Army have the immortal honour of being the first communities of Christians to accept the teaching of the New

Testament, that in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female. In the activities of civic life woman is now for the first time taking active and beneficent part. You find her on Boards of Guardians and School Boards; she will soon be found in Town Councils and Parliaments.

All this is the direct and inevit able result of the teaching of Jesus Christ, who abolished all distinctions between the sexes except those that are natural and inevitable and blessed. Selfish and degraded men have tried to establish some mental superiority for their own sex; there is no evidence of this in reason, in Scripture, or in history. So far as any evidence does exist, it is the miserable result of the selfishness of men in heathen countries, where they have taken full advantage of their physical superiority.

A very curious indication of the effect of Christianity upon woman was brought to light by the late Professor Rolleston. He made, in the museum of Oxford, one of the largest and most remarkable collections of human skulls that has ever been brought together. A friend of his informed me that when the Professor instituted minute investigations with respect to the capacity of skulls before the advent of Christ and since, he discovered the striking fact that the difference in size between the male skull and the female skull is much less in the Christian era than in any previous period of history. Here, then, we have imbedded in the very physical frame of woman a striking indication of the way in which Christianity has already enlarged her intellectual sphere; and this is but a prophecy of the immense and limitless services which Christianity will render to woman in the holier ages before us.

Much as Christianity has already done for woman, there is still a great deal to achieve. The laws of England do not yet fully recognize

the claims of womanhood as such, notwithstanding the enormous advance of recent years. The right of woman to her own property, to her own body, and to her own children, is now fully recognized and established by great legal decisions; and no words can describe the priceless value of each of these acts of justice, or the miseries which they will avert in millions of cases. Not a few excellent persons are still so misled by utterly un-Christian customs and traditions which have come to us from heathen, generally from Oriental, sources, that they are alarmed at the way in which many of the old disabilities of womanhood are now being removed. But there is not the least occasion for this alarm. To talk about woman being under any conceivable circumstances "unsexed," is to talk utter nonsense. Sex is a fact too patent, too vital, too essential, to be altered by any law or custom. There can be no doubt, however, that every purely artificial and conventional distinction between man and woman is on the point of being abolished. When that is achieved, it will be found that the necessary and inevitable sex distinctions will suffice, and will achieve, much more directly and thoroughly than any vain inventions of man, the purpose of the Eternal when He said, "It is not good for man to be alone." No doubt, in the daring attempt which is now being made to act on the teaching of Christ, there will be mistakes and blunders for which some must suffer; but it will end in an immeasurable enrichment and elevation of human life.

I am very much afraid that even now I have given readers who have not specially studied this subject, a quite inadequate conception of what women owe to Christianity; but if they will try to realize the existing condition of women in Africa and in Asia, they will be able to form some idea of the immense moral and