of duty over inclination. If the maxim of Herbart is true, which says that "The final purpose of education is morality," then nothing is more important than to make sure that every student shall be taught, whether he elects or not, the deep foundations, divine sanctions, unequaled majesty, and eternal rewards of duty. A well-known college president, pointing out some unsatisfactory results of increasingly prevalent methods, says: "Worst of all, the majority of our students, even at maturity, are distressingly lacking in moral enthusiasm." Inquiring for a remedy, he expresses his judgment that the curriculum should be so changed as to put "unprecedented emphasis on moral character and conduct. There should be a continuous training in ethical matters, not confined to a single miserable term, which is only better than nothing, but running through the entire course. Ethical teaching should be carefully and pungently applied to all the capital problems of life. All capital problems are more or less moral problems."

As to church and chapel attendance, is it not true that the student who is averse to acknowledging God by worship or giving religion any recognition in his life is precisely the one who needs to have the indispensableness of these things impressed by stated and obligatory religious observances? His aversion, or apathy, so far from being a reason why he should be excused from such observance, is a sign that he most of all ought to be held to it. And he is more likely to feel religion's appeal and to come to a realization of its importance if kept in contact with its rites and manifestations than if allowed to stay away beyond their touch and influence. That was a wise college president who, when asked his opinion concerning the propriety of required chapel attendance, answered sententiously, "God is not an elective." From beginning to end of his course it should be systematically impressed upon the student by every possible means that religion, which is the only firm foundation for ethics, is indispensable. Only religion can sustain his self-respect, grounding it on his likeness to and relations with God, including the destiny consequent thereupon; only religion can make him take his own existence seriously, without recklessness or frivolity ; only religion can render life earnest and thoroughly sincere ; only religion can give birth and breeding to such reverence and humility of spirit as will deliver from vanity and foolish pride; only religion can properly motive his activity, making him feel

the glow and uplift of a noble mission; only religion can make him worthy, prosperous, and happy "while life and thought and being last or immortality endures."

It is impossible to respect institutions which send out men who, instead of singing Faber's great hymn, "Faith of our fathers," are agnostics or freethinkers, all adrift without chart or compass, anchor or sounding line; men who do not go to church or observe the Sabbath, who build homes where religion and the Bible have no authority or recognition, where children are reared to disregard of the Sabbath, to wine and beer, to theaters, and to games which the law forbids and the courts define as gambling. It is impossible not to perceive that the situation to-day and the drift toward still more excessive optionalism in matters of the mind and of the soul loudly proclaim the superior value of the denominational colleges where the one supreme interest of existence is not ignored, where alone religion has due recognition, where the spiritual life is positively fostered, where a highly ethical religiousness furnishes the standard of manly conduct, and where an idealizing, purifying, and ennobling devotional spirit is not absent from the atmosphere of the institution, but breathes through all its life and is perceptible to every visitor.

All friends of positively Christian education must see how urgent is the need that the denominational colleges be speedily endowed with means and equipped with necessary buildings, apparatus, library, and teaching force to provide all the educational advantages that can be found in any State institutions. If those best and most indispensable of all colleges-the denominational—are to be maintained with any hope of their fulfilling their distinguishing function, they must be enabled to compete successfully for students against rival institutions which have no positively religious character. The policy of dividing resources by multiplying feeble and struggling colleges is not the path to such a result. Concentration and consolidation are often strategic words which point to wisdom's way.

Surveying the educational field to-day, and listening to current discussions, the conviction is driven in upon us that it is to the denominational colleges we must chiefly look for a manhood approximating the ideal-a manhood at once well-balanced, robust, and religious-the sort of manhood which will give dignity, steadiness, strength, and safety to the republic.

THE ARENA.

MEMORY LESSONS FOR CHRISTIAN FOLK.

"DEAR and great angel, wouldst thou only leave
That child, when thou hast done with him, for me!

Guercino drew this angel I saw teach
that little child to pray,

Holding the little hands up each to each

Pressed gently, with his own head turned away

Over the earth where so much lay before him

Of work to do, though heaven was opening o'er him."

-Robert Browning.

The pastor of Croydon Church was a pastor-a true shepherd-and he cared for the lambs of his flock. He fed them with divine truth gathered from the holy fields of Scripture. He taught them the doctrines of the Church which grow in the same holy Scriptures. He watched over them faithfully. He knew each one by name, and often talked with them. He met them in groups, classes, and public meetings. He said, "Christ's commission to 'feed my lambs' is as imperative as the commission to 'tend' and to 'feed my sheep.'" The pastor caused the little ones and the larger ones of his fold to fix in the memory-to do it so thoroughly that they might never forget the following and many other compact statements of truth and quotations from the word of God, the creed-forms of faith, and the sacred hymns of the ages. The children and young people, and therefore all the old people, knew and honored and loved him; and—

The story of Croydon Church we may sometime tell. It is a stirring story. But just now we wish to invite pastors, parents, and other teachers of our youth to secure the memorizing of these fundamentals of our holy faith, and thus crown the last year of the fading century with these immortal truths-relearned and emphasized-that the new century may be made to contribute more thoroughly to the Christian education of the generations that are to determine its quality and power.

Have parents who read these lines of appeal authority and skill to secure the fulfillment of this task by their children? Have pastors enough interest and enthusiasm in the work of early Christian education to make sure this worthy end?

The Holy Trinity: Father, Son, Holy Spirit-ONE GOD.
The Two Commandments: 1. Love to God; 2. Love to man.
The Holy Days: Three hundred and sixty-five days each year.
The Day of Days: The holy Sabbath.

The Two Sacraments: 1. Baptism; 2. The Lord's Supper.

Christ and the Life of Man: My life from his life;

His life for my life;
His life in my life;

My life for others' life;

This life for eternal life.

Words of Prayer: "Grant, O God, that I may never knowingly live one moment under thy displeasure or in any known sin."

"O God, whose nature and property is ever to have mercy and to forgive, receive our humble petition; and though we be tied and bound with the chain of our sins, yet let the pitifulness of thy great mercy loose us, for the honor of Jesus Christ our Mediator and Advocate. Amen." "O God, pardon what I have been; Sanctify what I am;

Order what I shall be;

And thine shall be the glory,
And mine the eternal salvation,
Through Jesus Christ my Lord.

Amen."

"Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy name through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

The Substance of Christian Doctrine: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. . . . God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him. . . . All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. . . . The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. . . . God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. . . . God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. . . . Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

Words of Belief:

THE APOSTLES' CREED.

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth : And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; the third day he rose from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.

THE TEN DOCTRINES OF GRACE.

I. I believe that all men are sinners.

II. I believe that God, the Father, loves all men and hates all sin. III. I believe that Jesus Christ died for all men to make possible their salvation from sin, and to make sure the salvation of all who believe in him.

IV. I believe that the Holy Spirit is given to all men to enlighten, and to incline them to repent of their sins and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

V. I believe that all who repent of their sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ receive the forgiveness of sin. [This is justification.]

VI. I believe that all who receive the forgiveness of sin are at the same time made new creatures in Christ Jesus. [This is regeneration.]

VII. I believe that all who are made new creatures in Christ Jesus are accepted as the children of God. [This is adoption.]

VIII. I believe that all who are accepted as the children of God may receive the inward assurance of the Holy Spirit to that fact. [This is the witness of the Spirit.]

IX. I believe that all who truly desire and seek it may love God with all their heart and soul, mind and strength, and their neighbors as themselves. [This is entire sanctification.]

X. I believe that all who persevere to the end, and only those, shall be saved in heaven forever. [This is the true final perseverance.]

Memory Lessons from the Holy Scriptures: Psalms i, xv, xxiii, and c. Hymns of the Church:

THE CREATOR-Methodist Hymnal, Hymn 138.

THE SAVIOUR-Hymn 211.

THE CHURCH-Hymn 770.

THE REFUGE-Hymn 656.

Topeka, Kan.

SYMMETRY IN PREACHING.

JOHN H. VINCENT.

THIS is a fundamental element of success in the pulpit. Whatever else enters into the composition of effective preaching, this must inevitably be present if the best results are to be reached. In the pulpit, as in other walks of life, extremes need to be guarded against. They lie in wait for the unwary, are easily followed, are usually fatal to the end sought. No normal act or thought is of itself evil, that it should be avoided; but each should be used properly, for only as it is distorted by excess is any right power made the occasion of wrong. And proper use prohibits the neglect of one power whose exercise is desirable as certainly as it forbids excess in another.

These observations are applicable to many phases of preaching, and are called forth by a recent discussion as to whether denunciation or invitation is better as a theory of preaching, whether the more successful method of pulpit ministration is of the positive or negative sort. It seems to the writer that the problem, put in the form of a question, itself calls for the answer, "Neither." It is inconceivable how either can be ignored and the other exclusively practiced in symmetrical preaching.