with spectators, and all went away well pleased with the entertainment.

Denver, Col.-Three young men from the Denver Unitarian church are studying for the ministry. The activities of the church are now so many that it has been found necessary to call an assistant pastor to relieve Mr. Eliot of a part of his heavy labor. The assistant who has been engaged is Rev. Ernest C. Smith, late of Seattle, Wash.

Florence, Mass.-A very sad accident occurred here three weeks ago, resulting in the death of a daughter of Rev. Frederick A. Hinckley and a son of Dr. Learned. Six young persons were riding in a sleigh. While crossing a railway track, their sleigh was struck by the locomotive of a passing train, resulting in the injury of all the six and the death of two. All the party were attendants upon Mr. Hinckley's society.

Geneseo, Ill.-After twenty-two years of faithful and devoted service, Rev. M. J. Miller has resigned the pastorate of the Unitarian society. Mr. and Mrs. Miller have both greatly endeared themselves to the society, and to a large circle of friends outside. Resolutions expressing strongly the regret and love of the church were passed at a recent church meeting. Mr. Miller organized the society, and has been its only pastor.

Kansas City, Mo.-A very lively discussion has been stirred up here on the subject of the theatre, in which Rev. S. C. Rankin of the Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church and Rev. J. E. Roberts of the Unitarian church have taken prominent parts, Mr. Rankin condemning the theatre indiscriminately and violently, and Mr. Roberts defending its legitimacy when kept within proper bounds.

Laconia, N.H.-The Unitarian church held a special service of reopening and reconsecration on December 25, in connection

with which there was a formal presentation of a beautiful memorial window by Hon. John C. Moulton. The church is now very handsome.

La Porte, Ind.-The society here is kept busy under the leadership of its minister, Rev. M. F. Tupper. A club of ladies, known as Unity Circle, meets on alternate Saturday afternoons, to read and discuss Frances Power Cobbe's "Duties of Women." The Unity Club has a double programme of study laid out for the season. A "Shakspere Section" is to make a study of "Richard III." and "Henry VIII."; and an "Outlook Section" will consider such topics of the time as the McKinley Bill, suffrage qualifications, etc.

Madison, Wis.-The Madison Democrat prints in full a sermon by Rev. J. H. Crooker, entitled "The Bible in the University," deprecating the present low condi

tion of Biblical scholarship in this country, and urging the importance of a chair of Biblical Science in the university.

Meadville, Pa.-The sum subscribed toward the James Freeman Clarke Professorship Fund is now a little over thirty-two thousand dollars.

Oakland, Cal.-Rev. W. R. Alger of Boston supplied the pulpit of the Unitarian society during the month of January, to allow Mr. Wendte a little rest. The new church edifice nears completion. It is to be a beautiful structure, and very perfect in all its appointments. We will wait until its dedication before giving a description of it.

Philadelphia, Pa.-A member of the congregation of the First Church has printed Mr. May's excellent New Year's sermon on "Happiness: Some of its Sources and Conditions."

Puyallup, Wash.-We take pleasure in printing the following communication, which comes to us from the pastor of the Unitarian church:

"Dear Mr. Editor, -The Unitarian society in Puyallup, Wash., is making plans to open and maintain a public, liberal readingroom, and needs some assistance from our Christian brotherhood at large in order to make it a success. We will very thankfully receive from the subscribers of the Unitarian such good literature (books or magazines) as they may be able and willing to contribute. Whatever is sent may be addressed to me.

"HERMAN HAUGERUD, Pastor.”

Seattle, Wash.-Rev. Roderick Stebbins of Milton, Mass., whose call to the Unitarian church of this city we noticed last month, has decided to spend two months in Seattle, and defer his decision as to acepting the call until the close of his visit.

prints in full a sermon by Rev. Thomas Van Tacoma, Wash.-The Morning Globe Ness, preached to a large congregation in the Unitarian church. The subject is "A Social and Economic Problem."

Westboro, Mass.-The Unitarian society have extensively repaired and improved their church edifice, putting in a number of handsome memorial windows, given in memory of persons long connected with the society and highly esteemed. With all the rest, the choir has been brought down out of the gallery and placed beside the pulpit, which gives much better satisfaction.

Winona, Minn.-The Contemporary Club of the Unitarian society of Winona meets weekly. Papers on current topics, including literature, social, political, and natural science, are read fortnightly; and a class under Rev. W. F. Greenman studies "Romola" the alternate weeks. The Winona branch of the

Women's Alliance and the Lend a Hand Club gave a fair in December, which netted $150. The society is increasing its Postoffice Mission work in adjacent counties, and Mr. Greenman has been preaching in neighboring towns, hoping to gain a permanent supply to the congregations of the church, which is disturbed by the changing population of Winona.

DR. MARTINEAU'S BIBLE CLASS.

Dr. Martineau has informed Mrs. Humphry Ward that he will teach a Sunday afternoon class for religious inquiry at the new University Hall, Gordon Square, London, the class to begin at once. In a letter explaining the aim which he has in view, Dr. Martineau says:

Within easy reach of Gordon Square are many large trade establishments, worked by a host of young men and women severed from the shelter of well-ordered homes and left to self-direction, amid the perilous crosscurrents of London life. Numbers of these remain constant to their simple habits and Christian convictions, and maintain their connection with their church and Sundayschool. But hundreds of others become affected by companions, or in clubs, or through the press, by the sceptical reaction of the age, and having from their education little resisting power, except the protest of a hurt piety, are flung into conflicts of mind destructive of peace and dangerous to character.

On such religious perplexities we have learned to look, not as a sin, but rather as a divine call to seek a purer light; and this gives us an advantage in the attempt to relieve them. Believing as we do that the danger lies in shirking, and not in facing, them, we can offer sympathetic help from teachers conversant with them and intent on seeing things simply as they are.

From experience of the changed conceptions demanded by the newly gained knowledge of Christian antiquity, I feel profoundly anxious that the inevitable reconstruction should be calm in its process and clear in its limits, and should cast away no true sanctity.

We could have a city colony and a farm colony in operation in two years, so that it would be right to have a city ordinance under which every beggar would be immediately arrested and sent to the city shelter for the offence of asking for assistance. And, for one, I am willing to turn over the matter of the establishing of such a city shelter and farm colony to the lieutenants and officers of Gen. Booth's Salvation Army, if they will undertake it for the city. If they will not undertake it, I deeply feel that somebody must."

The late Rev. Dr. Frederic H. Hedge said to an intimate friend in a time of severe sickness, "All I have had in the way

of honor I would give up to be freed from pain; but, if I have done any good in the world, that I would not, even for such deliverance, give up." Such a spirit as that makes the ordinary pains and troubles of life seem small.

A mother's love is but as a spark struck from the flint of human affection when compared with the love of God, which is like unto the unconsuming conflagration enkindled by the sun, whose kind, obliterating rays blot out night, tip the mountains with gold, set

WAY OUT.

In a recent sermon on Gen. Booth's "In Darkest England and the Way Out," Rev. David Utter of Chicago said: "For $100,000 we could do for Chicago what it would cost him $1,000,000 to do for London.

flowers into bloom.-Lee Fairchild.

A friend calls attention to an oversight which we are very glad to correct, in Mr. Douthit's article in the December Unitarian, announcing the discontinuance of Our Best Words. In naming the "first and most faithful friends of that paper, "the honored name of George Partridge of St. Louis

ought to have been included, as his appreciation of the value of the paper was particularly high, and his benefactions to it were particularly liberal. The very last gift of his life was a printing-press, to enable the printing of the paper to go on, at a critical time when it was felt that its continuation was very important. Of the sym

pathy and assistance of no one was Mr. Douthit more appreciative, as we personally know, than of those of Mr. Partridge.

Word comes from Mrs. Ormiston Chant that Dove Cottage, the home of Wordsworth at Grasmere, has been purchased, and is now secure. She writes: "I was very grateful to the Unitarian for taking the Dove Cottage scheme under its kindly wing. We now have the money all right; and the sacred spot is safe for the possession, in the highest sense of the word, of all people." She expresses appreciation of the contributions received from America, which, though not very numerous or large, yet helped appreciably toward the end desired. These have been acknowledged to the individuals from whom they came in all cases in which the donors' names were made known. Concerning herself, Mrs. Chant writes, "I have done much preaching the past autumn, and have a very full programme laid out for the spring."

Emma Abbott leaves a fine bequest of $5,000 to the Church of the Divine Paternity (Universalist), New York. She was the leading soprano in the choir of this church during Dr. Chapin's pastorate, and several wealthy members contributed funds to enable her to get her musical education in Europe.

It is well known that Rev. C. H. Spurgeon's health for some time past has been seriously impaired. But he has recently written from the south of France, where he has been spending some time, that he is slowly but he believes surely getting rid of his trouble, and regaining his old health and vigor.

Writes Rev. H. M. Simmons in Unity, "The wars of Christendom in the last forty years have destroyed over two millions of men, but have been less rebuked by the Church than the doubt whether Noah built the ark."

The Societies for Christian Endeavor have arranged for the general observance of Feb. 3, 1891, throughout the United States and Canada as Christian Endeavor Day.

We are told that a petition, sixty feet in length, signed by the women of India, is on its way to the queen, urging that the age at which a marriage may be legally entered upon in India shall be raised from its present limit of ten to fourteen years.

The Christian Union says that there are now seventeen thousand Chautauqua circles

in the world.

Says the Universalist: "It is gravely asserted that some churches are managed on the modern kodak principle. The pastor 'presses the button' for aggressive work, and the people 'do the rest,' but do not do much beside rest. The sad joke contains a moral."

A New York judge makes the somewhat startling statement that there are twice as many evictions for rent in New York and Brooklyn as there are in Ireland.

Says the London Christian Life: "Gen. Booth continues to be favored with a plentiful supply of criticism as to his scheme; but he has so far got the start of his critics that he must by this time have almost secured his £100,000, either in money or in promises. It rests with him now to set to work and justify the calls on the co-operation of the public that have been so freely responded to."

The Dean of Ripon takes exceptions to Gen. Booth's representations regarding the "submerged tenth." In a recent sermon, he said: "Hundreds and thousands of agencies have been at work for years past for the help and relief of this class. That more than £10,500,000 have been spent in this country in public charities, and at least £7,000,000 in private charity among the poor, is a proof that the submeregd 3,000, 000, as they have been termed, have not been overlooked altogether."

THE UNITARIAN.

AN ANNOUNCEMENT.

With the beginning of 1891, we take pleasure in being able to announce another step forward in the history of the Unitarian.

Three years ago we doubled the size of our little monthly, and added a cover. A year ago we obtained the subscription list and good will of Reason, the liberal religious and literary monthly of Minneapolis, Minn. Three months ago we came into possessorship of the good will and subscription list of Our Best Words, edited and published for eight years by Rev. J. L. Douthit at Shelbyville, Ill. With last month's issue (January, the beginning of our sixth year), we placed our business management in the hands of Mr. Geo. H. Ellis, of Boston, the well-known publisher.

We have always felt that for the Unitarian to reach its greatest efficiency it should be issued from one of our largest cities,-Boston, New York, or Chicago,-and by an experienced publisher, with better facilities than we could command for getting it

before the public and pushing its business interests. This change has now been effected; and Mr. Ellis, who from the first has been our Boston agent, now takes full charge of the publishing and business management of the magazine.

It is hardly necessary to inform our readers that Mr. Ellis is the principal publisher of distinctively Unitarian books in this country, as well as of a considerable line of works not Unitarian. He is also the publisher of many periodicals, among them the Christian Register, the Unitarian Review, and Mr. Savage's Unity Pulpit. This indicates the competency of the hands to which the business interests of the Unitarian have been committed.

Our Office of Publication will hereafter be at 141 Franklin Street, Boston. Our Western Office will be Ann Arbor, Mich. Subscriptions, advertisements, and business communications of all kinds should be sent to the Boston office. Editorial communication should be sent to Ann Arbor.

The character of the Unitarian will continue to be essentially the same that it has been from the beginning. While broad and undogmatic in its interpretations of religion, hospitable to all truth, and ever progressive in spirit, its position will be unequivocally theistic and Christian. It will endeavor to fill its pages with the best, the freshest, the most suggestive and helpful thought obtainable, not only from our own Unitarian writers in this country and England, but also from others outside of our own ranks. It will aim to strengthen every interest of our churches and our denominational life, and to carry our gospel of light and love far and wide to ever-increasing numbers.

We

And now, with the still brighter prospects for the future of the Unitarian that open with the better place of publication and the new and stronger business management, we appeal with new confidence to our friends for their co-operation and support. want to make the missionary effectiveness of the Unitarian greater than ever. this end, we offer to our Post-office Mission committees and other missionary workers special rates, lower than the past. want to put the periodical in larger numbers than ever into the families of our parishes everywhere, believing that no Unitarian home should be without a Unitarian

To

We

As announced in another column, the publication office of the Unitarian is now 141 Franklin Street, Boston.

It is safe to say that never in this country has any Unitarian publication attained so large a circulation within so short a time as has the Unitarian; and this transfer has now been made by Mr. Sunderland, its founder and successful publisher, in the belief that through this alliance still greater service may be rendered.

We want the earnest and hearty co-operation of all our friends in extending the circulation of both the Register and the Unitarian. We say co-operation, for we propose to do our part. We want every subscriber to consider himself or herself a special agent, from now until the 1st of April, to obtain new subscribers to either publication, or to themselves subscribe for additional copies of one or both, on the following terms: Any present subscriber to either publication may send us new subscribers to the Register for one year, retaining onethird of the subscription price, -i.e., remit two dollars, and we will send the paper for one year to the address of any person not now a subscriber; or any present subscriber to either may send us new subscribers to the Unitarian for one year, retaining one-half the subscription price,-i.e., remit fifty cents, and we will send the Unitarian for one year to the address of any person not now a subscriber.

This offer to remain open only to April 1, 1891. Sample copies furnished free upon application. Address as above.

Boston, Feb. 1, 1891.

GEO. H. ELLIS.

THE

VOL. VI.

THREEFOLd resurreCTION.

A SERMON FOR EASTER BY REV. WILLIAM BALLOU, FARGO, NO. DAK.

Says Ruskin: "The real meaning of any myth is that which it has at the noblest age of the nation among whom it is current. The farther back you pierce, the less significance you will find, until you come to the first narrow thought which indeed contains the germ of the accomplished tradition, but only as the seed contains the flower.

As the intelligence and passion of the race develop, they cling to and nourish their beloved and sacred legend. Leaf by leaf it expands under the touch of more pure affections and more delicate imagination, until at last the perfect fable bourgeons out into symmetry of milky stem and honeyed bell."

Whenever we open our Homer, or our New Testament, or our Virgil, we light upon a myth which completely accords with the conditions which Ruskin describes. The tales of Homer's heroes, Ruskin would say, are the perfect flower of Hellenic tradition, "budding out into symmetry of milky stem and honeyed bell." The myths of Greece, Rome, Judea, and of every nation and age, have manifested themselves in all the necessary and various stages of the process of growth and decay. Nineteen centuries ago the polytheistic religion of Southern Europe was-to press again into service Ruskin's metaphor-losing its leaves and its petals. The belief in Jupiter and his Olympian court, in Pluto and his Stygian realm in the nether world, was "in the sere and yellow leaf." The reader of Virgil, the poet of the time, is conscious of that fact latent underneath all the deferential piety of his verse; and in his successors the fact was no longer concealable, but manifest to all. Ovid's popularity was hardly compatible with aught else than a crumbling faith in

No. 3.

The poems

the legends of the Roman gods. of Silius (Italicus) and of Papinius Statius would, if we had time to read them, seem like the obsequies of a religion.

And, while the polytheism of Southern Europe presented this aspect, there was lying embedded in monotheistic Judaism the germ of a new religion,-a faith destined to make a nominal conquest of Paganism in a contest wherein we may now discern that Paganism equally came out conqueror. This germ was

the belief that the body of Jesus of Nazareth had been reanimated, and that after his death he again walked the earth in corporeal reality and talked with his friends. We do not say that this fact, but that the sincere enough belief that this was a fact, was a necessary prerequisite to the later developments of Christianity. Without this belief, the followers of James and Paul could never in the latter half of the first century have taken their farewell of Israel's faith.

The testimony that is offered us on the group of incidents that have come to be spoken of as Christ's resurrection may be shortly summarized. First, it appears that there was somewhat of indefiniteness attaching to the word itself: “As they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of Man were risen from the dead. And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean." (Mark ix. 9, 10.)

Jesus' own conduct and language were not such as to make his meaning explicitly understood; he did not encourage his followers' natural desire for familiar explanation: "The Son of Man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he shall rise again. But they understood not that