UNIVERSALIST NOTES.

NEW METHODS IN THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL.

It may be of interest to the readers of the Unitarian to speak of the method of work for Sunday-schools, which has been adopted in St Paul's parish, Chicago, and which has attracted favorable notice from many Sunday-school workers and students. It is a plan which aims to secure more time, more thought and more actual study for the subjects with which the Sunday-school concerns itself, without disturbing present methods of organization, the separate classes and the study of a uniform lesson on Sunday. In order to get at this result, use is made of the Chautauqua idea. A course of study is arranged, which an adult might cover in two years' reading, but which a youth would require three or four to finish, and, which, of course, may be made to conform to the theological character of any school in which it is introduced. A copy of this scheme is furnished to every scholar who undertakes the course, and also a card on which is made a record of each lesson in the regular work of the school, which is studied at home. The details of the scheme are best illustrated by quoting from the circular issued by the "Home Sunday Circle" of St. Paul's church:

I. Any member of the Sunday-school or Parish

can be a member of the Circle by handing in his

name to the Pastor, the Superintendent or the Sec

retary of the Home Study Circle.

11. Each member of the Circle is expected to take the course of study in order, beginning with the

The requirement of "sixty per cent. on the Lesson Card," means that the student must have studied, during his work in the circle, at least sixty per cent. of the lessons taken up in the school with which he is connected, or of the International Lessons if connected with a school having no uniform lessons.

It may be said of this plan that it is at once systematic and elastic; it can be carried out without encountering the difficulties involved in breaking up a school into graded classes; it covers a sufficiently wide range to give a good religious and theological knowledge to any one completing it; there is provision in it for informing the mind and quickening the religious nature; it gives familiarity with the letter of the Bible, with the doctrines of the church, with the evidences of Christianity, and prescribes a helpful class of devotional readings. It is an adaptation, too, of a method which in the wonderful work of the Chautauqua Circles throughout the country, has proved itself perfectly feasible. Of course it is crude and imperfect as all new methods must be. It will require an interested and

er entitles to the certificate or diploma for the lower grade, and can take place only by passing the required examinations.

III. The course of study is as follows:

1. FIRST GRADE. The Ten Commandments; The Twenty-Third Psalm; The Lord's Prayer; The Sunday-School Creed; The Beatitudes; all to be committed to memory.

2. SECOND GRADE. Names of the Books of the Bible; Psalms i, xix, xe, xci, cxxi, cxlvii; to be

committed to memory. Bacon's Childhood of Jesus; Gospel Catechism, to be learned. The Gospel of

Mark to be read through. An average of 60 per cent. on the Lesson Card.

3. THIRD GRADE. The Parables of the Good Samaritan Luke x, 25-37), and of the Prodigal Son (Luke xv, 11-32; and the xili chap. of 1st Corinthi

ans, to be committed to memory. Geography of the Holy Land (lesson sheet prepared for the Circle). Gospels of Matthew Luke and John, and the Acts of the Apostles to be read through History of the Jews. An average of 60 per cent on the Lesson Card.

a tax on the patience and perseverance of the students. It will have to compete with the very methods and organization from which it is patterned. But it offers to pashave long coveted, i. e., a chance to secure tors and Sunday-school workers what they more of the time and thought of children and youth for the study of religious things.

It may be added that about one hundred are already enrolled in St. Paul's school, including many adults; and that numerous applications have been made for information from interested persons all over the country.

LITERARY NOTES.

J. C. A.

A "Prolegomena to In Memoriam," by Prof. Thomas Davidson, is announced by Houghton, Mifflin and Co.

Tolstoi's "My Religion" is to be published in a new and cheap edition by T. Y. Crowell & Co.

It is announced that Messrs. Cassell & Company will publish at once a new edition of William Robertson's "Life and Times of the Rt. Hon. John Bright," which has been brought down to date by a well-known American writer. The adding of the last lines to these chapters was held back to await the death, which has been so long an

ticipated. The frontispiece of the book is a portrait of Mr. Bright, taken from a recent photograph.

Messrs. Sonnenschein & Co. (London) have in press a series of papers on vivisection, by Miss Frances Power Cobbe. The book will be published under the title of "The Modern Rack."

Mr. Edward W. Emerson has written a book upon the private and domestic life of his father, Ralph Waldo Emerson, which admirably supplements Mr. Cabot's excellent biography of Emerson which treated more especially his public career as author and lecturer. The title of the new book is "Emerson in Concord," and Houghton, Mifflin & Co. will soon bring it out.

Houghton, Mifflin & Co. will soon publish the first volumes of an Illustrated Library Edition of Thackeray's Works. It will be printed from large type, and will contain twenty-two crown octavo volumes, illustrated with over sixteen hundred pictures from designs by Thackeray and various artists. It will be more complete than any other English or American edition yet published.

The London Inquirer is publishing as a series of "supplements," portraits of some of the most eminent living representatives of Unitarianism in England. Portraits of Rev. H. W. Crosskey, minister of the Church of the Messiah, Birmingham, Harry Rawson, Esq., Ex-President of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, and Prof. J. Estlin Carpenter, of Manchester New College, have already appeared.

The next number of the Unitarian will contain an extended and careful paper by Rev. J. H. Crooker, of Madison, Wis., on "Present Religious Tendencies in Scotland."

The International Record of Charities and Correction, edited by Rev. Fred. H. Wines, will be published hereafter in Springfield, Ill., Mr. Wines's home, instead of in New York City as heretofore. The limited financial support which the paper has received necessitates the change. The ability with which it has been conducted and the importance of the cause it represents certainly ought to ensure it an ample support.

A special and very tasteful edition, in morocco, of our little volume of poems "One Upward Look Each Day" has been prepared, containing a neat Marriage Certificate. The volume seems a peculiarly fitting wedding gift, and it is believed that many of the ministers will be glad to get it in this form. It may be obtained from the A. U. A. rooms, Boston, or by addressing the Unitarian, Ann Arbor. Price, seventy-five

cents.

Under the head of "The Disciples' Pulpit," a selected sermon of Dr. James Free

man Clarke is still published each month by Geo. H. Ellis, Boston. There are now two volumes containing the following ser

mons:

Volume I:

1. The Mutual Obligations of Science and Religion.

2. From Faith to Faith.

3. A Happy New Year.

4. The Ministry of the Letter and Ministry of the Spirit.

5. A Sermon on Scolding.

6. Melchizedek and his Moral.
7. "The Wrath of the Lamb."

8. Rejoice Evermore.

9. Dorothea L. Dix. 10. Anarchy and Law.

11. Temperance Efforts and Temperance Methods.

12. The Pew System and the Free-Seat System.

Volume II:

1. The Mind of Christ.

2. What God Gives He Gives Forever.

3. The Broad Church.

4. Christ and other Masters.

5. The Old and New View of the Hereafter.

6. Lost Opportunities.

7. Be not Weary in Well-doing.

8. Homes in Heaven and on Earth.

9. The Joys of Christmas.

10. How to get the Most out of the Coming Year.

11. "I Make all Things New."

Subscription price, 50 cents per year; single numbers, five cents. For missionary work, $3.00 per hundred.

Columbia College is to have an annex called Barnard College, which will give to women full courses of studies equivalent to those offered in Columbia, and confer the same degrees. The professors of Columbia College will have charge of many of the classes.

Says the Woman's Journal: “Ramabai has opened her school. By the counsel of her advisory board in India, it has been established in the Back Bay district of Bombay instead of at Poonah. Her reception among her own people has thus far been cordial and encouraging."

We are in receipt of an interesting pamphlet entitled "A Brief History of the Last Three Pastorates of the First Parish in Dedham," Mass.; the three pastorates being those of Rev. Benjamin H. Bailey from 1861 to 1867, Rev. George McKean Folsom from 1869 to 1875, and Rev. Seth C. Beach from 1875 to 1888. The matter of the pamphlet was preached as a sermon by Mr. Beach on Nov. 11, last. The author begins by saying: "The history of this parish during its first seven pastorates, covering a period of two hundred and twenty-two years, has been written with a fullness and ability which leave little to be supplied. For the com

memoration of the two hundreth anniversary of the gathering of the church, my predecessor, Dr. Lamson, prepared with painstaking care three sermons, in which, and in notes to which, was told not only the story of this parish but the religious his tory of the town, to the beginning of his own pastorate in 1818. On the fortieth anniversary of his settlement, Dr. Lamson continued the history in a sermon, supplemented at the time of his resignation, in 1860, by another, in which was told most that is given a later generation to know of his long and fruitful ministry. We have also had prepared an interesting and valuable biographical sketch of Dr. Lamson, which, with other matter, we have printed in a small book entitled, "The First Church in Dedham.' These sermons, with this biographical sketch, make together a very complete history of what is of most interest in the religious life of this parish during something more than six generations."

Says the Boston Commonwealth: "A friend recently asked Julian Hawthorne as to the current opinion that literary marriages are rarely happy. He answered: 'My own experience has been so fortunate that I am prepared to find it exceptional; yet I incline to think that writers are more apt to be happy in their marriages than persons of any other given profession. They have the pleasures of real life and the pleasures of the imaginative life, both- the one supplementing and alternating with the other.""

Rev. J. T. Sunderland's book, "The Liberal Christian Ministry as a Calling for Young Men and Women," published by Geo. H. Ellis, Boston, will be ready this week.

Hosea Ballou: A Marvellous Life Story. By Oscar F. Safford, D. D. Boston: Universalist Publishing House. We have here a well written biography of a strong, noble and truly historic character - the man who, all things considered, is perhaps to be regarded as the most influential preacher and leader that modern Universalism has produced. In a future number of the Unitarian we hope to give our readers a somewhat extended article upon Hosea Ballou and his work.

Poems. By Lee Fairchild. Chicago: A. F. Moore & Co. The short poems that make up this little volume represent life and nature under their pleasanter moods. Though the most are lighter thoughts touched into graceful form "by sweet Fancy's brush," some show that the poet has at times wakened from mere dreaming and has seen the meaning behind the nature he lovingly pictures. When birds, flowers, woods, streams and the quieter moods of human life move him, he has spoken in a broader language and has given his verse more beauty of form than when the humorous aspects have touched his fancy.

in a wider field than that of "Western literature" alone.

Our Legacy. Boston: American Unitarian Association. Paper and cloth. pp. 65. In this little volume we have a series of meditations on the Lord's Prayer,-- devout, earnest, practical, helpful. The writer enters with rare appreciation and depth of insight, not only into the spirit of the prayer as a whole, but into the meaning of each petition and ascription.

Fruitage: Genesis of the Nursery Tale, The Tree of Mythology, its Growth and Saws of Folk-Lore, etc. By Charles De B. Mills. Syracuse: C. W. Bardeen. The author of this book has evidently studied widely and patiently the more accessible myth-literature of the world, and gives us fication of the same under the following here a pretty good condensation and classiheads: Myths of Explanation; Myths arising from Metaphor; Heroic Legends; Nursery Tales; Proverbs and Folk-Lore; Survivals and Reminiscences; Shadow and Signitication; Didactic, Ethical; Symbolism.

One cannot always see why Mr. Mills classifies a myth under one head rather than another; not a few of his explanations seem fanciful; he does not carry the sunmyth theory to quite the extreme that Sir G. W. Cox does, though we think he carries it somewhat farther than sound scholarship warrants; the reader lays down the book with the feeling that the science of mythology is still in a very crude and unsatisfactory state, if indeed it can yet be called a science at all. Still Mr. Mills shows him

self a diligent collector. Some of his explanations and reflections are suggestive and interesting, and his classification is not without convenience and practical value. Perhaps it would not be going too far to call this the best popular work on mythology we have in English. It has the advantage of a good index.

Lee.

The Study of the Scriptures in our Colleges. By H. Blanchard.

The Future of American Institutions. By R. A. Greene.

Andover Review (April).

The Philosophy of Thomas Hill Green. By John Dewey.

The Public Schools and Religion. By Wm. Elliot Griffis.

The Anti-Semitic Agitation in Europe. By Geo. H. Schodde.

North American Review (April). Professor Huxley and Agnosticism. By R. G. Ingersoll.

Christianity versus Socialism. By Lyman Abbott.

Idiosyncrasies of Alcohol. By W. S.

Searle.

NEWS FROM THE FIELD.

We wish to represent every Unitarian church in the country in these columns, and will if our friends will help us.

Ministers, Sunday-school superintendents and teachers and church workers everywhere, please send us word-brief, concise-of the important things you do.

Don't wait for an accumulation of items, but as soon as one of interest occurs, send immediately on a teenth of the month.

postal card. All items should reach us by the eigh

The Spring Meeting of the Wisconsin Conference of Unitarian and other Independent Societies will be held at Black River Falls, Wis., May 7-9, 1889. Rev. M. D. Shutter, of Minneapolis, will preach the opening sermon Tuesday evening, May 7. Subject: "The Liberal Faith as the Basis.

of Character." The Universalist Church

of Black River Falls extends a most cordial welcome to the delegates and friends of the Conference. T. B. Forbush, President; J. H. Crooker, Secretary.

Alton, Ill. Rev. H. D. Stevens has begun his work here full of hope and under good auspices. The Society here is an old one, having been organized in 1853. Besides a house of worship, it owns a parsonage finely located on the bluff overlooking the Mississippi. Besides his morning sermons Mr. Stevens has begun a series of Sunday evening discourses on popular topics.

The

Ann Arbor, Mich.-The Sunday evening lectures, which continued this year a little over six months, have just closed. The attendance of students has been large,. not infrequently crowding the auditorium and overflowing into the parlors. morning congregations also have been excellent. The Unity Club will hold two more meetings; its season has been prosperous. The Ladies' Union have been making a study of Japan, and have found the subject very interesting. The Channing Guild held its Anniversary on Sunday evening, April 7.with a sermon by Rev. Reed Stuart, of Detroit.

Baltimore, Md.-The Baltimore American has recently printed sermons from Rev. Inner Light," "Christ the Desire of All NaChas. R. Weld, on "George Fox and the A Study of Truth," "What Lack I Yet?" "A Man's a Man for a' That," and "Why am I a Unitarian?"

tions,"

66

Foote has now for some weeks been steadily gaining ground, and we are all rejoicing. -Thursday evening, April 11, our church at Cambridgeport was thronged with an interested and sympathetic congregation, for the installation of Rev. John Tunis as "associate minister" with our old friend Dr. George W. Briggs.

-The Benevolent Fraternity is earnestly considering what to do with the "Parker Memorial." Meanwhile the problem is partly solving itself by the number of useful church institutions, such as Dr. Hale's "Tolstoi Club," which are gathering about it and fast turning it into a centre of useful work.

-This "Tolstoi Club," by the way, is a notable thing. It began when Dr. Hale had to give up his part in the chaplainship at Harvard. Some of the young men wanted to know how they could still continue to see him, whereupon the idea was started of meeting once a week to discuss social problems, matters of citizenship-not Tolstoi, but in something of the Tolstoi spirit. The result has been the formation of this club, of some 70 young men, partly Harvard students and partly from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

-Rev. S. H. Winkley, for more than 40 years minister of the Bulfinch Place Chapel, and rarely beloved by many besides his own mission congregation, says he is seventy years old. It seems absurd, but one is bound to believe him, so his people got up a birthday reception on Fast Day evening, April 4. Large numbers attended, and there was much loving feeling manifested, both in prose and verse.. The Boston Association of Ministers attended in a body. -The Third Religious Society in Dorchester has just held its annual meeting. Ten persons were baptized and twenty received into the church, several of them the leading men in the congregation. Religious interest seems very deep in the society.

Big Rapids, Mich.-Rev. J. T. Sunderland spent Saturday and Sunday, April 13 and 14, here, trying to kindle new hope and life in the Unitarian Society, which has been for some time without a pastor. A congregation of 100 came out on Sunday. A committee was appointed to see how much money can be raised for the support of a minister.

Cedar Rapids, la.-Rev. Anna J. Norris has returned from the south-west. She is preaching occasionally here and in the neighborhood and hopes soon to take a parish and resume permanent work.

Chicago. Mr. Sidney Morse has nearly completed a bust of Theodore Parker for All Souls' Church. Orders have also been given for similar busts of Channing and Martineau. Mr. Jones held preparatory conversations at the church on several Sunday afternoons, preceding Easter, for the benefit of persons desiring to join the so

ciety. The attendance was excellent and the results most satisfactory.

has increased in numbers since last SeptemDavenport, la.—The Sunday-school ber, until there is great need of more room; will add several rooms to the church. and an addition is now being built which

Sunday evening sermons which have proved -Mr. Judy has just finished a course of very interesting to many outsiders as well as to members of the church. The "annual

revival" is felt to have been very beneficial. Detroit. This city has the following philanthropic institutions: Young Woman's Home. Home of the Friendless.

Thompson Home for Old Ladies.

Ladies' Protestant Orphan Association.
Woman's Hospital and Foundlings' Home.
Industrial School.

Children's Free Hospital.
Open Door Society.

Day Nursery and Kindergarten.
Helping Hand Society.

Woman's Christian Association.
Good Will Society.

Detroit Home for Boys.

Ladies' Society for Hebrew Widows and Orphans.

St. Vincent's Female Orphan Asylum. -At the late school election, 2700 women registered, and one woman was elected as a

member of the school board.

-The Unitarian society has adopted plans for its new church. -Rev. Reed Stuart will spend his summer vacation in the White Mountains.

Duxbury, Mass. A correspondent writes that through the efforts of Rev. Mr. Bannigan, the Sunday-school is again becoming strong and interesting. It has been suggested as a new pleasure for the children that they be taken to Plymouth, about thirty miles distant, to see the monuments and to visit the many places of historic interest about the town.

Evansville, Ind.-Rev. Julius Blass, who has been for some years at Millbury, Mass., has accepted a call to a liberal German church in this city.

Ithaca, N. Y.-The Weekly Ithacan prints an excellent sermon by Rev. John W. Day upon "The Value of Little Things." -Mrs. Earl Barnes gave a very interesting lecture before the Unity Cub recently, on "The Poor of London."

Littleton, N. H.-The Unitarian Society here is growing in numbers and popularity. A few months ago the Unitarians were not recognized by the other churches as Christians. But sentiment has been so revolutionized that the Fast Day union service was held in the Unitarian church, the pastor preaching the sermon, and the other ministers of the place taking part in the service. Now the Grand Army Post requests the pastor to preach the Memorial