more orderly, more omnipotent, more lovely? To him all is not deceit and fraud; all is natural expression and sincerity now. So he comes at last to feel, underlying all his misfortunes, all his struggles, all his sorrows, the dominant chord of sunshine and goodness. Then he sings, with Browning,—

"Let one more attest,

I have lived, seen God's hand through a lifetime,

And all was for best."

And whatever the creed he accepts, or does not accept, what-
ever the colors under which he marches, he is a religious man.
Fifth, and finally. He will be a serene man.
Not unaware

of the commotion all about him, not undisturbed when friction makes a discordant atmosphere, but able always to go beneath the surface to the calmly-flowing current which bears all things on to the mighty and eternal sea. Serenity, it is the last triumph of religion over the ills to which flesh is heir. To confront the inevitable with a sweet mood, to do when something remains to be done, and to be

this is what it means.

When one is reconciled to his lot, when he preserves his balance under the most difficult conditions, when he is like a gentle breeze, fragrant and soothing to the fevered brow of anxiety and doubt and despair, then he is a religious man. I have known such touched, as it were, by the ineffable sweetness, and commissioned seemingly as very gentle prophets of the ineffable calm.

Reverence, Breadth, Public Spirit, Hope, Serenity, these, properly understood, are sure indications of the religious man. When their possessor comes along he brings an immortal influence which, though not recognized at first, is at last omnipotent. He sounds the key-note to an anthem which falls fruitfully on human ears, and wins and harmonizes all human hearts.

"Said a people to a poet, Go out from among us straightway
While we are thinking earthly things, thou singest of divine.
There's a little, fair, brown nightingale, who, sitting in the gateway,
Makes fitter music to our ear than any song of thine!'

"The poet went out weeping, the nightingale ceased chanting;
Now, wherefore, O thou nightingale, is all thy sweetness done?
I cannot sing my earthly things, the heavenly poet wanting,
Whose highest harmony includes the lowest under sun.

"The poet went out weeping, and died abroad, bereft there.

The bird flew to his grave and died amid a thousand wails.
And, when I last came by the place, the sweetest music left there
Was of the gentle poet's song, and not the nightingale's."

I would fain think, friends, that the truly religious man always leaves the poet's song behind him. I would fain trust that in some way, not altogether unworthy, that may be your song and mine.

The question being open for discussion, Miss GERTRUDE MAGILL came forward, and spoke substantially as follows:

The reference in this excellent address to Charles Sumner reminds me of two stanzas in a poem I chance to remember:

"Suffice it that he never brought

His conscience to the public mart,

But lived himself the truth he taught,

White-souled, clean-handed, pure of heart.

"He cherished, void of selfish ends,

The social courtesies which bless

And sweeten life, and loved his friends
With most unworldly tenderness."

Those two stanzas point to two things in the life of Charles Sumner which were most estimable traits of character: first, he never brought his conscience to the public mart, and, second, he never yielded to any false public opinion.

The great work of religion is to bring the members of society together and to uplift them to higher levels.

The Presiding Clerk called upon CHARLES D. B. MILLS, of Syracuse, N. Y.

MR. MILLS said: It is a great privilege, friends, for me to be here with you again, after an absence of eight years. These years have been full of experiences to all of us, and we have all learned something. Each of us has different surroundings, and these surroundings mould different ideas. We all have thoughts peculiar to ourselves alone.

In the olden times it was the custom to have people experience religion by prostrating themselves before some power which they did not understand. It was believed that religion was sent to individuals, and it was regarded as a thing to be received as a special favor from the hand of God.

Now, we know that a man is never more religious than when his mind is most active and open to receive the good. While we see that in the past religion has been made a most complex affair, we now see that it is in the future to be most simple, the worshipping of the good and holy.

Living up to the highest and best dictation of the conscience is the object of true religion. Knowledge is becoming more widely diffused, and we find that religion is universal. Every human being of whom we have any knowledge has an ideal to reverence. This he must pursue and cherish, and the more we investigate the more shall we become imbued with the thought that in the service of the Ideal we are all brothers.

The morning session then closed with the singing of the hymn commencing

"O holy Truth, to thee

We would our homage give."

SIXTH DAY.-Afternoon Session.

The afternoon session convened promptly at two o'clock, and the audience joined in singing a hymn.

The Presiding Clerk announced that it had been decided to hold an afternoon meeting on First day.

SAMUEL PENNOCK moved that the session in question should be held in the borough hall at Kennett Square.

WILLIAM W. KENT expressed his desire to have it held at Longwood.

SALLIE C. TAYLOR said that there were many in Kennett Square who had no way of getting to Longwood who would like to attend the meeting.

AARON MENDENHALL argued in favor of Kennett Square. MRS. FRED. PHILLIPS was in favor of Longwood; so was JESSE P. HANNUM.

HENRY S. KENT made a strong plea for Longwood.

The motion to hold the meeting at Kennett Square was finally withdrawn.

REV. F. E. MASON, of Brooklyn, N. Y., was then introduced to address the meeting on "Christian Science."

He spoke as follows:

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE.

I have come before you to present some new ideas of the Bible and of man, God's image and likeness. New ideas usually mean heterodoxical ideas, and it would be well at this juncture to recall and bear in mind Paul's words, " Prove all things, hold fast to that which is good;" also, "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." It is not necessarily true that every strange thought is a foe simply because it differs from some previouslycherished belief, or because it seems at the outset to be incompatible with our ideas of things; often behind a fancied foe there lurks an angel friend ready to say, "fear not. . . that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost," leading

to a higher and holier sense of true being. Although Galileo was ostracized and threatened with decapitation for his persistence in declaring the revolution of the earth around the sun, in time the world developed to the acceptance of his reputed pernicious teachings. What I shall say may seem antagonistic to current religious postulations, but we learn only as we reach beyond the conventionalities of the hour. 'Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." "The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" must eventually rule, and man must develop in thought, even as Jesus grew from the babe of Bethlehem to the full stature of the Son of God.

The heresy of one generation is the orthodoxy of the succeeding one; therefore, heresy is the impetus which carries man onward. It required a heretic to advance Paganism to Judaism, and a heretic was essential to merge Judaism into modern Christianity; and as the kingdom of heaven is not yet come to the world, it will be necessary to find a heretic to advance modern Christianity into the next step in the scale of true being.

The present condition of the world is an abnormal one, a condition having no divine sanction, and, furthermore, one that is totally unknown to God, who is "of purer eyes than to behold evil." God does not know of the sickness, sin, death, chance, change, discord, and decay of the world. They are not of him, and he recognizes them not. They are but the dream-pictures of human belief, and exist only to the human senses. If God is conscious of the suffering, misery, privation, crime, and poverty of the world and permits these things to continue when he has the power to annihilate them, he is not a father to us. It must be admitted that either God can destroy these abnormal conditions and will not, or else he cannot. If he will not, he is not a father to us; if he cannot, he is not all-powerful. The Bible declares that God is omnipotent, yet we believe there is an antagonistic power to God which we term evil. Is not this inconsistent? Can God be