and prosperity, does not insure them an earthly reward for spiritual excellence, are, indeed, far out of the way. And not a little of the philosophizing on religious subjects at the present time is vitiated by this error. The church is weak in so far as it has yielded to the modern demand, just in so far as it has neglected "the word of God" that it might "serve tables." If the church has been overorganized at all, it is on the side of social service. It has developed in men the feeling that it is a mere dispenser of bounty-that its members ought to receive everything and give nothing.

So the first days have many important lessons for Christian people. By studying them we can see, at least to some extent, both what the church is and what it is not. The fact that so many of us have come to think of it as the mere insurer and guarantor of earthly happiness of itself proves that we have forgotten first principles altogether. It is important that we should go back to them in our work for reform and readjustment. And before we decide on any radical changes it would be well to consider two points, and to consider them with [87]

some care. The first is that we should judge the church of to-day, not on the basis of its failure to meet modern views, but wholly on the basis of its departure from the original standard. We must do this, if what we seek is the strengthening of the church as a Christian institution. And the second point is, that we ought very carefully to ask ourselves how far the people have themselves been responsible for the supposed failure of the church-responsible because they have endeavored to turn it from its real purpose, to make it, not the bestower of divine gifts, but the imparter of earthly blessings. Having thus lowered the institution, we can not be surprised if, in its weakened state, it operates to strengthen still further the false ideas which the people have. Finally we should try to have clear notions of what we want. If we want the church which Christ put into the world, the church which was born on Pentecost, the church that conferred on people the Spirit of God, and which made them fruitful, not in property, but in good works, we can get it. But the first step in this direction is a reverent study of the simple account of the found

ing of the church, of its work and influence, and of the relation of the people to it. If men want something else, they ought not to deceive themselves into thinking that they want the Christian church.

DOCTOR ELIOT'S RELIGION

No criticism of The Religion of the Fu

ture, as expounded by Doctor Charles W. Eliot, can be at all adequate which does not frankly admit that the whole tendency of the race for ages has been in the direction of many of the positions assumed by him. We have seen a gradual narrowing of the realm of the supernatural; a weakening of authority as the sufficient foundation for faith; a partial substitution of character for creed, of life for dogma, so that even the orthodox are quite as ready to say that one's creed depends on one's life as that one's life is the product of one's creed. The change has come slowly-as was proper so that many of us do not realize that there has been any change. Yet it is marked. The influence of science on religion has been profound. The study of the Bible has done much to alter the views that men once held concerning the sacred writings. And the study

of the history of society and religion has made it plain that rnany things that used to be accounted for on supernatural grounds are now known to be capable of a rationalistic explanation-and thus, as has been said, the supernatural element in religion has dwindled. Once everything was supernatural. Gods and demons filled the air. Omens were the most powerful influence in the life of man. Up to a time which is within the memory of men yet living something of this old savagery-often much of it-colored the religious thought of even civilized people. To-day only those who are most ignorant, those who have studied nothing-not even their Bibles-are held by the old theories. Doctor Eliot is, therefore, very obviously in line with a tendency that has been operating for countless ages-and never more powerfully than in the last fifty years—and all over the world. Many will no doubt deny this, but it is believed that the statement is true. The appeal is to conditions as they actually exist. It is also to the soul of every man who has kept track of what has been going on in his own inner life. We know that we do not