studies, he resolved to set himself a special task daily, and to this he strictly adhered. In old age he began to translate his French work on the Bible into German, and was about finishing the Apocrypha and taking up the New Testament when death called him from his labors. He had been physically delicate from youth, but his powerful mind had the mastery over his body.

He seems to have described himself in a sketch of the contented scholar. "He gladly opens the door to all who need him; but he keeps the key in his pocket, and in consecrated hours permits only the select ones to enter. Guests are welcome, but only such as come not merely for the sake of eating and drinking. He works vigorously himself, and no one about him is idle. The world outside and its opinions do not trouble him. If ill-natured persons criticise the color of his coat, he cares not, since it warms him; if affected stylists find fault with the sound of his words, his language nevertheless remains firm and forcible; if envious neighbors cast dirt on his field, it only makes the vegetation luxuriant."

Moltke. So much has been written about this great strategist that we need not enter on details. His name is here mentioned for the purpose of directing attention to a few points which are of especial significance for readers of the REVIEW.

Moltke was a thinker, as Frederick the Great was a philosopher; but his thought had a practical aim. In this respect he is a representative of the modern trend of thought, Germany not excepted. It is surely not without meaning that the three names most celebrated in German history during the last decades are men of great practical achievements-William I., Bismarck, and Moltke. Not learning for its own sake is the demand, but thought that is power in action, and that has a national significance on account of its national results.

It is likely that Moltke was not great

est in the things which have made him most eminent. He had inner, invisible characteristics which were the conditions of his outward success, and which would have been great even if the world had never beheld the victories he won. These inner qualities put him in striking contrast with the ordinary tendencies of the age. He was remarkable for what the Germans designate by that untranslatable word Sammlung. There was a calmness and poise which nothing could disturb.

In religion he was thoroughly evangelical. When asked what his favorite books were, he named the Bible first and the Iliad as second. On his eightieth birthday he said, “How different a standard from that of earth will be made the measure of this life in the next world! Not the brilliancy of success, but the purity of motive, and the faithful continuance in the line of duty, even in such instances where the effect scarcely appears before men, will decide the worth of a life. What a remarkable change between high and low will take place at that great review!" This emphasis on the motive is highly characteristic of the man. What a man is was in his estimate the most essential thing; what a man docs has value only so far as it expresses a sincere, good heart. So truly was duty his life that he has been called the embodiment of the categorical imperative. He taught the officers under him to do their duty, but to let considerations of self vanish. "The ambition to shine or to receive recognition for what was only their duty seemed to him to rob the deed of all merit" The impulse of duty being his sole motive, he sought no other reward for his deeds. Not only was he unpretentious, simple as a child, apparently unconscious of any special deserts, but he was also free from fret and worry. Speaking of the night before the battle of Koeniggraetz, he says, “I am so fortunate as to have a healthful sleep, which enables me to forget the cares of to-day and to gather strength for the morrow."

He easily adapted himself to occasions as the circumstances required. When in youth he received the small pay of a lieutenant, he made the sacrifices necessary to live on the meagre income. That the task in hand could make him forget his own wants was illustrated at Koeniggraetz. He had not thought of providing himself with food The whole day had been spent in the saddle without anything to eat. When the battle was over, a soldier gave him a piece of sausage, but had no bread. At the village to which he retired for the night nothing was to be had but a cup of tea. Exhausted, feverish, and hungry he threw himself on his bed to seek sleep.

As he could make sacrifices, so he could bear success without elation. A single day made him famous; but his whole life had been a preparation for the victory of that day. As another says, "On the morning of the day at Koeniggraetz he was a general known only to such as were familiar with the official list of Prussian officers; and on the evening of the same day he was a captain whose success by common consent placed him on a level with the greatest in history. This change affected him little; he was aware that on that third day of July he had done nothing more than what he had practised all the rest of his life-namely, his duty." Life to him was a grand mission of duty, and applause was but an accident or an incident. "He was convinced that an individual is not called to work for himself or for the present moment, but that his deeds are to affect the whole future, and are forever to produce good results."

For thirty-two years Moltke was chief of the general staff of the army. During this time he was not only the leader in the wars with Austria and France, but he was also the teacher of the German army. Not only in his brilliant successes will he live, but also in what he has made the officers and the entire service. In the papers he has

left and in what he has made the army he will continue his influence.

He was a specialist, but not narrow Until his death he was a member of Parliament. It has been said that he was silent in seven languages." He rarely spoke-never at length-but always to the point. His speeches proved that he had other than military interests. Both in his speeches and writings his style was direct, business like, characterized by force rather than ornament. It has been said, "Not less in the history of German prose than in German military history has he won for himself a permanent place."

In this age of unrest, of noise, of glittering show, and of selfishness Moltke is an anomaly. He seems to be an anachronism. His life was that of a soldier, his business was war, his achievements were battles; yet he was gentle as a child, kind and sympathetic. His erect bearing and firm step were symbols of his character, as the mild glance of his eye revealed his loving heart. He seemed to be a personification of the order, the system, the discipline, and the consecration to duty which have made the German army what it is. All this must be known in order to understand Moltke's place in the heart of the German people.

Notes.

REV. DR. BRAUN, one of the most earnest pastors in Berlin, recently announced from the pulpit that hereafter the church would be open all day, not only on Sunday, but also during the week. He stated that this was to be done in order that the church, as originally intended, might be a house of prayer for the congregation, this being especially desirable in our busy and distracted times. By thus leaving open the church, an opportunity would be afforded in the house of God, away from business and from company, for quiet meditation and prayer. The ex

APPALLING revelations of crime have recently been made in Berlin. At the trial of a husband and wife for the murder of a night watchman a state of degradation became apparent, whose horrifying details were supposed to be impossible in this city. The wife is fifteen years older than the husband, and had before this trial been punished some sixty times, mostly for immorality. He had also been in prison repeatedly. By her lewd practices she supported both herself and her husband, and for the sake of this support he had married her. While she was plying her avocation, he spent his time in saloons. The witnesses largely belonged to the same class of society. After the most disgusting revelations had been made through the press for days, the trial had to be broken off, because the testimony of an important witness in Chicago is needed.

While the city was excited by these details from the lowest walks of life, a new excitement was created by the effort of a woman of fashion, with the aid of her brother, to murder her husband, a man of scholarship and of ineans. This excitement has not subsided, when it is discovered that a ser

her mistress on last Sunday, in order to rob her of a little over one hundred dollars. After the deed she was full of levity, went to a ball, and spent her time till late at night in dancing. Sunday evening is the time when balls and all kinds of low amusements are best patronized. She has just confessed her guilt. Her age, the brutality of the deed, and her participation in the ball immediately after have a startling effect.

The cases mentioned are but a few of the revelations of crime made within a week or two. Suicides are so common as to excite attention only when attended by some unusual circumstance.

The papers cannot but comment severely on the revelations made. They try, however, to calm the public with assurances that the age is no worse than former times, that the only difference is that now crime is made more public by trial in open court and by the press than formerly. They also affirm that Berlin is no worse than other great cities. This, of course, does not satisfy the community, least of all the earnest Christians. With the vigilance and efficiency of the police it is thought that horrid crimes ought to be less frequent in a Christian city. Not a few behold in the revelations an evidence of the growth of atheism and of heathenish brutality.

How to Avoid the Ministerial Tone. BY PROFESSOR A. S. COATS, ROCHESTER, N. Y.

IN the first place, consider what a heinous sin the ministerial tone is. It is an oratorical sin, since of all unnatural and absurd voice movements it is the most unnatural and absurd, and hence best adapted to defeat the ends of public address. It is a sin against the Christian religion, since its sad and dismal monotony utterly misrepresents

the character and genius of that relig ion. "The voice, indeed," says Emerson," is a delicate index of the state of the mind." There is little doubt that the preacher who so disgusted the royal hater of shams, that he went out of the church vowing that he would never enter a church again, accomplished this result not by the doctrine taught, but by the ministerial tone used in proclaiming it. His critic did not find fault with his thought or lack of thought, but simply with the fact that,

66

whereas the birds and flowers and sunshine outside the church were natural," there was no touch of nature whatever about the preacher. The ministerial tone is a sin in the moral and spiritual sense of that term, a sin against God; for to sin against the laws of speech which God has ordained, and to misrepresent the religion through which He is seeking to redeem the world, is certainly to sin against Him, however pious and unconscious of wrongdoing the sinner may be.

Having come to realize in some degree the sinfulness of using the ministerial tone, the next thing for each individual preacher of the Gospel to inquire is: "Does this sin crouch at my door ?" Many men are certainly guilty of this sin who are not aware of the fact. Indeed, if no one used the ministerial tone save those who are conscious of using it, THE HOMILETIC REVIEW would hardly need to call attention to a pulpit fault so little known. But it is one of the most common as well as the most extraordinary (suffer the paradox) phenomena for a preacher to insist on the necessity of emphasizing, in teaching and in life, the bright side of the religion of Jesus, its hope, its courage, its cheer, and yet in a tone of voice the absolute opposite of bright, cheerful, hopeful, and courageous. His thought is glad; his voice is sad. His thought is strong; his voice is weak. His thought is triumphant; his voice is discouraging. Longfellow says: "The soul reveals itself in the voice only" and Plato used to say to a stranger: "Speak, that I may know you." Thus, it matters little that the thought is glad and strong and triumphant; the man's tone reveals himself, shows what is his deepest, truest conviction in regard to the thought he is uttering. If it were too much to say that the man, at bottom, is a hypocrite, saying one thing and believing another, it is not too much to say that the tone of his voice will have far more influence over his audience than will the thoughts expressed by his voice. If

his tone is depressing, his thought, whatever its character, will have a dcpressing effect upon his audience. The difficulty is found not in making the preacher acknowledge this, but in making him realize that he is guilty of using this abomination-the ministerial tone. How can the guilty man be led to see himself as others see him?

By leading him to hear himself as others hear him. Let him turn his ear upon his voice when it is in operation in public; and let him ask himself concerning it. Let not one of the questions be: 'Is this my natural voice when in the pulpit ?" Poor man, he has whined and moaned and droned so long when in the pulpit that this tone is as perfectly natural to him as it is unnatural to the thought he is uttering. The proper questions are simply these: "Is my tone like my thought?" "Does my matter dictate my manner?" "Is my thought glad, and is my voice also full of cheer?"

Again, the presence or absence of the ministerial tone can be determined, especially in reading the Scriptures, an exercise in which it frequently plays the leading role, even when it retires modestly into the background in the sermon that follows, by interjecting an occasional explanatory remark in a perfectly commonplace tone of voice. If the ministerial tone is used in the reading, the contrast in voice will be absurdly evident even to the reader himself, however gentle he may be as a selfcritic.

Help in detecting the ministerial tone may also be secured by asking friends in the audience if they observe it. This resource, however, is not greatly to be relied upon, since, though the friends may be conscious of some unnatural peculiarity in the preacher, they may not be able to describe or name it, and since few friends are faithful enough honestly to point out one's faults even when able rightly to locate them, and when besought to do so.

A careful analysis of the elements that go to make up the ministerial tone

may also be of great service in deciding whether or not one is guilty of it. A "sad and dismal monotone" is not a technically correct characterization of this too common pulpit fault, though it is probably a more suggestive and helpful characterization than one technically correct would be. The tone in question is always sad and dismal, but never an absolute monotone. It is a semitone-that is, the inflection on each word is a half instead of a full note, as in more energetic speaking. Semitones are always sad in effect. The inflection

on the closing word of the sentence is always the weak upward wave, instead of the strong, downward, assertive stroke of voice. No voice-movement can properly be called the ministerial tone in which positive thoughts, not negative, are spoken assertively, dogmatically, with the sign of completion and conviction, which is the falling in flection. The quality or timbre of the tone in question is usually dark and sombre, sometimes even sepulchral, especially in older ministers, the chest tone rather than the head tone.

The question may now well be asked why ministers use this tone so much more than other speakers as that it should have been named from them. It is not used by them alone. Laymen use it as well, especially in religious meetings; and the sisters in public address use it more than do their brothers. Lawyers sometimes employ it in summing up their cases before a jury, never in arguing a case before the judge alone; and politicians frequently drop into it in pleading for votes to save the life of their beloved country. Ministers use it for the same reason as do these-namely, because of its pathetic element. It is an emotional, not an intellectual voice-movement. It touches the heart, when it has not become a mere mannerism through constant use; at least, it is supposed to touch the heart, and probably does so when it comes from the heart; and hence it seems adapted to persuasion. Many ministers forget that they are to con

vince as well as to persuade, to convince in order to persuade, to reason as well as to move the heart and bend the will. In such cases, the intellectual element being left out of the sermon, the emotional element seems necessarily to dominate in the delivery of the sermon. Frequently, however, the pathetic tone is used from the beginning to the end of a discourse which is not lacking in the grace of argument; and we are treated throughout to bathos instead of pathos.

Again, the tone under discussion requires no exertion for its production, in which fact we may find an added reason for its so frequent use by ministers. It is a lazy voice-movement. One has but to open his mouth, and the soft, sad semitone will seem to effuse itself. The weak upward wave at the end of the sentence is also much easier to make than the strong downward stroke. Hence the older one grows, and the more exhausted in physical strength even a young man becomes, the more likely is the ministerial tone to manifest itself in the preaching.

It is probably true, also, that the solemnity of the minister's calling, the vast issues that hang upon his rightly impressing the truth and persuading to action, has much to do in accounting for the prevalance of this tone in the pulpit. The monotone is always impressive. The semitonc is always sad ; but many ears cannot distinguish between the two, and many voices in attempting the one produce the other.

It is hardly necessary in so many words to point out the way in which to avoid or in which to overcome this tone-the greatest hindrance to ministerial effectiveness, so far as pulpit work is concerned, that inheres in the ministry itself to-day. Knowing what the disease is and its cause or causes, one also knows the remedy.

Use enough exertion in speaking to throw the voice into full notes when you are addressing the reason--that is, give each word in the sentence, and especially each emphatic word a quick,