Spokane Falls, W. T.- The Sunday Herald contains an interesting historical sketch of the Unitarian Society. Rev. C. W. Wendte visited the place in 1886, and gave an impetus to the liberal sentiment. In April, 1887, sufficient subscription of money was made to ensure a safe foundation for a church movement, and in May the present minister, Rev. E. M. Wheelock, came. He began preaching in a hall to an audience of 40, but in May of last year the place of meeting was changed to the Opera House. Soon after Mr. Wheelock came a Sunday-school was organized, and a large adult Bible-class, also a Ladies' Society; Later a Unity Club was formed. Ground was broken for the new church last July, and the completed edifice was dedicated December 12. It seats 250 persons. The parlors, kitchen and dining rooms are yet to be added.

St. Louis, Mo.-- The Natural Science division of the Unity Club- Church of the Unity has under its direction an interesting course of lectures, six in number, upon the following subjects: "The Story of the Spectroscope," by Prof. H. S. Prichett, of Washington University; "Insect Musicians," by Miss Mary E. Murtfeldt; "The Ant," by Mr. Fred Wislizenus; "Standing Armies of the Vegetable Kingdom," by Prof. William Trelease; "Trees, and their Winter Aspect," by Miss Frances C. Prince; and "Geology," by Mr. William M. Chauvenet.

Toledo, Ohio. Rev. A. G. Jennings has been making a missionary tour in Ohio, to Versailles and vicinity, where there is good prospect of one or more new Unitarian churches. Mr. Giles B. Stebbins, of Detroit, preached for him in Toledo on Feb. 3rd. The Toledo Blade, of Feb. 12, contains an able sermon from Mr. Jennings on "What Toledo Needs." As might be suspected, the preacher thinks that need to be a good home for the thriving young Unitarian society.

Topeka, Kansas.-At the recent annual meeting of the Unitarian church, C. M. Foulks, Wm. Wordsworth, Geo. S. Chase, Robert Pierce and Mrs. A. H. Wood, were elected trustees; and A. P. Wilder, W. C. Campbell and Frank H. Foster were chosen for the executive committee.

Rev. E. Powell for five years has made this church his chief charge, while missionary for the A. U. A. for the States of Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. His congregations have increased from an average of about 30 to an average of more than 130, and the society never seemed so prosperous as now. It has raised $5,200 for buying a church site, and for building and furnishing

a church, and has borrowed $2,200 from the building loan fund of the A. U. A. Of this latter sum it has paid $600. Last year it purchased a $250 organ, and this year society has also undertaken to pay $500 toa $600 piano. For the last two years this ward the pastor's salary, the A. U. A. paying the balance.

Owing to the urgent demand from other unable to preach here more than three Sunportions of the State, Mr. Powell has been supplied the pulpit. days in a month, but most of the time has

Prof. Marsh, of the Lawrence University, who has very satisfactorily occupied the pulpit several times, has been recently called to Harvard to fill a professor's chair Lowell and Longfellow. once occupied by Emerson, and later, by

The society has instructed the executive committee to secure the services of Mr. Powell for the whole time if possible, and has appointed a committee to solicit funds with the hope of obtaining $1,000 towards the pastor's salary.

On the recommendation of Rev. Mr. Batchelor, secretary of the A. U. A., at the last meeting of the Missouri Valley Conference, it was decided to create an advisory board to make recommendations to the A. U. A. as to the expenditure of money in the jurisdiction of this conference.

Mr. F. H. Foster was chosen by this society as a member of this board.

This church has the finest choir in the city, a feature of the services that is helping materially to increase the cong regation.

special sermons on the Fundamental PrinToronto, Canada. A course of twelve ciples of Religion, by different Unitarian ministers, is in progress here. Rev. Messrs. Calthrop, of Syracuse, Dillingham, of Buffalo, and Batchelor, of Lowell, have spoken. Rev. D. W. Morehouse, of the New York Conference, is managing the course.

Trenton, N. Y.- After a brief period of candidating, this staunch little church, -the only Unitarian church between Syracuse and Montreal-has called for its pastor, Rev. Edward Foster Temple. The congregations are growing, the Sunday-school has awakened to new life, and every department of the church is visibly active. Sixteen young ladies have been organized into a

Unity Club," and twelve boys, under the direction of the pastor, meet weekly for selfimprovement and the cultivation of the missionary spirit.

Rev. William Silsbee was pastor of this church for more than twenty years.

At the installation of the new pastor, Jan. 18th, Rev. S. H. Camp, of Brooklyn, gave the invocation and charge to the pastor; Rev. S. R. Calthrop, of Syracuse, the sermon and installing prayer; and Rev. D. W. More house the right hand of Fellowship and address to the people.

Union City, Pa.-Mrs. Mason has organized a Lend-a-Hand Club of thirteen girls. On the 3rd inst., a class of seven were taken into the church by a service of confirmation and baptism. Dr. Townsend is taking up Mr. Mason's work at Corry and will preach there regularly in the future.

kind

I am greatly obliged to you for your letter and for the interesting article in the

Unitarian Review on "Robert Elsmere." I

feel as though you had understood me and my book wonderfully well, and Robert's biographer thanks you for your sympathy with him and his story.

The success of the book in America has, indeed, been extraordinary. I have been so much touched and stirred by it, that it has been difficult for me to begin the new book of which my mind would soon be full were it not for the disturbing career of the old! And yet, of course, the sympathy shown my work, ought to be a great stimulus and encouragement to me for the future, and very likely when I get into some quiet place, as I hope soon to do, away from London, and set seriously to work again, I shall feel it only or mainly in this way. Meanwhile, I am, anyway, very grateful to all my American friends, and beg you to believe me sincerely yours,

James T. Bixby, Esq.

MARY A. WARD.

JOTTINGS.

Ramabai, on her way to India, has been spending a little time in Japan, and lecturing there to great audiences. In Tokio, the capital, the largest lecture hall of the city was so crowded that the doors had to be closed half an hour before the meeting began.

Mrs. Mary H. Hunt, National Superintendent of the department of Scientific Temperance Instruction, is now engaged in

revising the temperance text-books of leading American publishing houses. They will be made to conform with the truths estab lished by the latest investigation into the nature and physiological effects of alcohol.

There were seventy-four new Bands of Mercy for teaching children kindness to animals, organized last month, making the number of bands now in existence 6,435.

hospital which the Red Cross Society is The Empress of Japan lately visited the building at Neno, and was so much pleased

with what she saw that she made a donation to the society of $80,000.

Make that stranger glad that he came to your church.

"Dear Mr. Editor: Please read the inclosed poem carefully and return it to me with your candid criticism as soon as possible, as I have other irons in the fire." Dear Mr. Smith: Remove the irons and insert the poem."

There are nearly three hundred women studying at the Cooper Union Free Woman's Art School in New York.

Here is what Governor Ames, of Massachusetts, says in his message about female suffrage: Once more I earnestly recommend, as an act of simple justice, the enactment of a law securing municipal suffrage to Recent political events have confirmed the opinion which I have long held,

Women.

that if women have sufficient reason to vote

they will do so and become an important factor in the settlement of great questions. If we can trust uneducated men to vote, we can with greater safety and far more propriety grant the same power to women, who, as a rule, are as well educated and quite as intelligent as men.

One hundred and seventeen of Ramabai's books have been sold in Chicago during the last year by the Ramabai Circle.

rently occurred in England from Roman A somewhat important secession has reCatholicism to Liberal Christianity. Mr. Addis, a man of high standing in Roman Catholic circles both on account of his theological learning and his literary ability, and withal a prominent writer for the Spectator, has left his former religious connection and taken up ministerial work as a Free Christian or Unitarian minister in one of the Australian colonies.

The Unitarian will continue to labor in the future as in the past with untiring zeal for the promotion of a Liberal Christianity which shall be as consecrated as it is rational; on fire with philanthropy and missionary zeal; organized and united; loyal to its great inheritances from the past, believing in better things to come; at one with men and women of every sect and class and name who desire to build up a religion as broad, high, deep and eternal, as the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man.

VOL. IV.

TRUE LIFE.

As rolls the stream of time along,
Life's joys or woes increase;
Our days are spent in anxious strife,
Or else in solemn peace.
Unruffled ease may not be ours,
Not ours the flowery mead;
In God's great school of discipline
The purest hearts must bleed.

Stagnation is the soul's decay,

And trivial joys are vain-
The sense of worth must ever be
The spirit's truest gain.

Be ours the high resolve that wins
Devotion to the right,

THE JUDGMENT-DAY OF THE
CHURCH.

▲ SERMON, BY REV. CHAS. G. AMES, BosTON, MASS.

The time is come for judgment to begin at the house of God.-I. Pet., iv, 17.

Can we at all comprehend the time in which we are living? To me, we seem to be in the midst of a solemn judicial proceeding a day of judgment, when all human affairs, and we with the rest, are being put on trial, and are under going a searching inquiry. The judge of mankind does not array himself in robe and wig and ascend a bench: he is a discerner of the thoughts and interests of the heart; all things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. But the proceeding is not less solemn, searching and decisive because carried on informally; carried on privately, in the court of individual

No. 4.

reason and conscience; and, publicly, in the collective mental activity of our time, in the visible conflicts of principle and in the out-working of social results. For who does not see that what we call civilization is being put to proof,- that all established institutions and timehonored standards are under challenge? Nor is the tribunal less divine because it is set up in the human mind, and conducted by human faculties. "It is the Lord's doing; and it is marvellous in our eyes."

Our

The test of an iron girder or a stick of timber is, how much weight will it carry? how much strain will it stand? The test of a factory is, what quality and quantity of products does it turn out? The test of an athlete may be, how much can he lift, or how far and fast can he run? Heart, brain, lungs, every organ and fibre, are tested by the daily demand for endurance and performance. So are principles and institutions tried by experience and by their fitness to human nature and need. educational systems and methods must submit to be tested by the kind of men and women they produce; our political institutions by the amount and kind of liberty and benefit they procure for the people. The people themselves must answer for the wisdom and justice of their laws, for their loyalty to those laws; they must prove their capacity for self-government and for intelligent cooperation in promoting the common welfare. And the stuff of every man's and woman's character is continually tested by the life-trial, as gold is tried by the fire. Always we are before the all-viewing judgment-seat; always the books are open; always, whether they know it or not, the living are judged out

But the standard of moral judgment is adjustable to changing conditions. With every increase of intelligence and ability comes increase of responsibility. In this wide process of human evolution we are carried up to new planes of possibility, and therefore of duty; for where much is given, there will much be required. Thus come critical periods in history, awful days of reckoning, when thought, feeling and conduct, and their organic expression, must be adjusted to higher standards as the only escape from degeneracy and decay, or from personal and social damnation. Then, whether we will or not, we are all summoned before that judgment-seat of Truth, which is the bar of God. Then, on the dome of the sky, as on a mighty bell, a new hour strikes for the world.

I must speak of the present religious situation as one of high and pressing judicial inquiry. Our sacred institutions, authorities, beliefs and methods, are being brought to trial; brought to trial both in the private mind and be fore all Israel and the sun. "The time is come for judgment to begin at the house of God."

The sacred books, the doctrines, the church, the ministry, the religious ideals, standards and customs, must all undergo impartial, passionless, thorough scrutiny. On the threshing-floor of the world, through the so-called Christian ages, have accumulated vast heaps of wheat and chaff; and lo! there comes a Mighty One, a majestic Spirit of Truth, whose winnowing-fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clear his floor; his wheat he will gather into his garner, the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

This discriminating or judging process goes everywhere and reaches all human concerns. "God will search Jerusalem with a lighted candle," said a Hebrew prophet; meaning that the All-Seeing would look into every corner. To deal with the spiritual condition of a people is to deal with their entire life,ecclesiastical, civil, social, literary, edu

Such a judgment-day comes with every increase of light. For the light makes manifest our imperfections, and compels us to condemn them, or to do worse and become worse. "For judgment I am come into the world," said Jesus. The light which came with him revealed the incompleteness of the old order and the possibility of a better one. It compelled men to choose whether they would remain in the bondage of the form and the letter, or rise into the light and liberty of the spirit. It compelled a new valuation of all things; things long held as precious were shown to be inferior or worthless, while things long despised were seen to be precious in the sight of God.

Away went temples and priest; the gods of Olympus scampered off to oblivion; the idols were sent to the curiosity-shop; the gorgeous old worships with their oracles and litanies, their pomps and processions, their painted scenes and stage properties, were swept into the rubbish-heap. Was it so sad that the fires went out on ten thousand altars? No, the sky was left clear of their blinding smoke, and men of humble heart looked up and saw the face of the Father. "The fair humanities of old religion" gave place to a broader brotherhood; the profitable and oppressive monopoly of spiritual functions and the trade in sacrifices vanished before a faith which made every man a priest of the Most High; and as the old Jerusalem perished, there were visions of a new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven.

Great judgments and transformations were accomplished eighteen centuries ago,through divinely human agencies and through an increase of spiritual light: what may we look for to-day? Has there not once more been a great increase of light? "Whatsoever doth make manifest is light." The proof of increasing light is increasing clearness of vision; and certainly nothing looks to us as it did to a former generation. Imperfection has become manifest and

glaring: imperfection in our traditional faith and practice, and in the evidence on which that faith has rested. The light has made plain to many eyes the incompleteness of Protestantism as well as of Romanism; of Unitarianism as well as of Orthodoxy; it has made it impossible for multitudes to retain their reason or their honesty and still to think and feel, or profess and act, as their fathers did. "God is light," said a Christian apostle. "God is a sun," sang a Hebrew poet. "Walk in the light, and ye shall not stumble." said Jesus. No matter how or whence light comes, it is God's revelation; it is commanding; it brings every work to judgment.

This modern light, which shines in our minds and illuminates the whole field of religious thought, this increase of rationality which is like more abun dant life,

this wider and exacter knowledge of human history and of natural law-shall we call it a flash from the pit? or shall we devoutly recognize it as our heaven-sent guide? And if that light shines in our own minds and enables us to judge more wisely, and thus to correct and amend our ways, must we not take heed lest the light within us become darkness? By that light we must approve or condemn all that we have called sacred, as well as all that we have called secular.

What if Geology shows us that the world is older than the Hebrews thought? What if Astronomy shows us that the ancient conception of the universe, with this little earth for its centre, was a natural but childish mistake? What if the old arguments for miracle, and the whole theory of supernaturalism, should break down under honest scrutiny of the evidence? What if better acquaintance with history lets us see the growth of Jewish and Christian myths as plainly as we can trace those of Greek and Roman? What if this sublime and unequalled collection of ancient writings is found, on closer scrutiny, to reflect the errors as well as the wisdom and inspiration of its authors? What if the appeal to the authority of an infallible book, or of an infallible church, is met by reasonable proofs that no such in

eyes to the light, for fear of offending the Father of lights?

How like a blazing day of judgment, the light of truth is exposing the elements of unreality and misconception in our religious thought and belief! Fiction and delusion have been clothed with beautiful forms and set to music. Words and phrases of sweet and solemn sound have played tricks with our imagination; and base metal has passed for coin current, because stamped with the royal image and superscription. Under all manner of sacred disguises, have human errors and follies been accepted as divine gifts and requirements. Become religious, and you are in the ark of safety. Range yourself under any banner that bears the sign of the cross, and you pass for a disciple of Christ. Call him "Lord! Lord!" and it shall be counted for righteousness. Enroll your name among professors, and it will be found at last in the book of life. Yet the sharp-eyed men of the world know well enough that

"A

man may cry 'Church! Church!' at every word,

And have no more grace than other people;

The daw's not reckoned a religious bird Because he keeps a-cawing in the steeple."

It is becoming plain that religions are of all grades,-good, bad, and indifferent. There is a religion which spoils a man for all good uses in this world in pretending to fit him for another. There is a religion which turns one's eyes towards the sky so that he does not mind where he is stepping, nor have quite wit enough to understand another man's rights. There is a religion which is all profession and no practice, or all doctrine and no duty. There is a religion which is like spiritual fever and chills: it merely raises the temperature of a man's emotions, and then leaves him to cool off,- a little worse for every fit. There is a religion which is like nightmare, filling the mind with phantoms, working confusion of thought and paralysis of all natural faculties and feelings. And there is a religion-O, how much of it!-which is merely play-acting and make-believe, a pretty drama of music