follows my example, as some are sure to do, will there result more harm than good?" Let a young Christian, if in doubt, make original investigations as to how many successfully couple devotion and the dance, and attend the prayer-meeting and the theater with equal regularity.

As to the theater, I made careful investigation of the eight theaters of highest standing in New York City, when a pastor there, by reading the librettos of the plays, and found that the eight plays then on the boards were all pictures of impurity, to say nothing of the ballets; the so-called "best theater" having on its stage a soiled "lily," playing the part of a courtesan in a picture of seduction long drawn out; a play as unfit for pure men or women of any age as a visit to the mouth of the pit, which indeed it was. Shortly after, in Harper's Weekly, the theatrical manager, Mr. Harrigan, referring nonchalantly to the relation of the theater to morals, declared that the money a play would bring was the decisive point with managers, admitting that the foremost plays then in vogue, which he named, all centered in immoral intrigues. Because one celebrated play pictures pure home life, shall we support an institution which is the very citadel of the attack upon the family? An article on "Show-places in Paris" (Harper's Monthly, December, 1894) shows that French theaters are even worse than ours. The " living pictures" of the London theaters (consisting of women in glove-fitting, fleshcolored tights, in tableau attitudes), suppressed by the efforts of Lady Henry Somerset and others, were allowed to reappear in New York and other American cities at the very time the Lexow Committee were hunting down less public and so less corrupting nastiness. Each of the city papers commended the committee on one page and advertised the "pictures" on another. Some good people fear to fight "living pictures," and like theatrical indecency, for fear of increasing the evil by advertising it. But this cannot be a valid excuse when the thing attacked is illegal, and so can soon be put beyond all advertising benefits. In 1895 the theaters of the United States had become so impure and coarse that The Outlook, a defender of the theater, said (April 13, 1895): "As a friend of a true theater and of a drama which belongs to the arts, The Outlook urges all self-respecting people to stay at home until the managers introduce decency, variety, and a little art into the plays."

We cannot leave this subject without an earnest protest against the plague of erotic novels, sold freely on railroads managed by Christian men; sold without protest in the shops of respectable citizens, and allowed in Christian homes, although their very titles and covers are doors to hell. This and other literature that court records prove to be promotive of crime, are allowed to poison youth in open day. The

French Academy refuses persistently to admit Zola, but fathers and mothers admit him to their homes.

Dress reform, often treated by men, and women, too, as a jest, is a matter of serious importance, since it affects the health of mothers, and so of their children, and so the public health. The Chinese women, with bandaged feet, might well send hygienic missionaries to American women, who compress more vital organs at the dictates of fashion. When a woman gratuitously sweeps the street it might be treated as only an amusing instance of the follies of fashion, were it not that she is sweeping disease germs into her home. The low-cut dress, which some Christian women wear at the dictates of Paris actresses and demi-monde, promotes not only pneumonia, but also passion, and for both reasons is a social peril.

EASY LESSONS IN CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.

PREPARED FOR THE USE OF MIXED SCHOOLS.

"This is life eternal, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."-John xvii : 5.

[Copyright, 1890, by J. A. Quay, Morganza, Pa.]*

NOTICE. The object of this little book is to present a short and plain explanation of doctrines common to all who profess belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ, leaving instruction in the doctrines peculiar to each denomination of Christians to be supplied by each authorized teacher of that church.

[EXTRACTS.]

Question.-What is the first thing man should know? Answer.-The first thing man should know is that there is a God, who rewards the good and punishes the wicked.

Q. Who is God? A. God is the creator of heaven and earth, and of all things.

Q. What is man? A. Man is a creature composed of body and soul, and made in the image and likeness of God.

Q. In what is man like to God? A. Chiefly in his soul; which is a spirit that can never die, capable of knowing and loving God. Q. Say the Apostles' Creed. (Creed as usual.)

* A copy of this very interesting book (see history of it, pp. 94-96), with indorsements of it, can be had from the above address for 10 cts, postpaid.

Q. What means the Blessed Trinity? A. One God in three divine persons.

Q. Are they not, then, three Gods? A. No; the three persons are one and the same God, having but one and the same divine nature and substance.

Q. Why did the Son of God become man? A. The Son of God became man that he might redeem and save us.

Q. How did Christ redeem and save us? A. By his sufferings and death on the cross.

Q. Is the sin which we inherit from our first parents the only kind of sin? A. The sin which we inherit from our first parents is not the only kind of sin; there are other sins which are called actual sins, because they are acts of our own.

Q. What is actual sin? A. Actual sin is any thought, word, deed, or omission, contrary to the law of God.

Q. How long did Christ live on earth? A. Christ lived on earth about thirty-three years, and led a most holy life in poverty and sufferings.

Q. Why did Christ live so long on earth? A. Christ lived so long on earth to show us the way to heaven by his teachings and example.

Q. What is Holy Scripture? A. Holy Scripture is a collection of books, written by men inspired by the Holy Ghost, and acknowledged to be the written Word of God.

Q. Which is the best prayer? A. The Lord's Prayer, because Jesus Christ himself taught it.

Q. Why do we say “Our Father," when we say the Lord's Prayer? A. We say "Our Father," because God is the common Father of all; and therefore we should speak to him with child-like confidence, and love and pray for one another.

Q. To obtain eternal salvation is it enough to know what God teaches? A. No; we must also keep his commandments.

Q. Why are we bound to love God above all things? A. Because he is our Creator, our Redeemer, and our supreme happiness, for time and eternity.

Q. How are we to love our neighbor as ourselves? A. "As you would," says Christ, that men should do to you, do you also to them."

Q. Who is our neighbor? A. All men are our neighbors; even those who injure us, or differ from us in religion,

Q. Where is our duty to God and our neighbor most fully stated? A. In the Ten Commandments.

Q. Who gave the Ten Commandments?

A. God gave the Ten

Commandments, written on two tables of stone, to Moses, and Christ confirmed them in the New Law.

Q. Say the Ten Commandments. (Given as in Exodus xx, common version.)

Q. What are we commanded to do by the words: "I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt have no other gods before me"? A. We are commanded to know and serve the one true and living God, and adore but him alone.

Q. What is forbidden by the words: "Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image"? A. By these words we are forbidden to make images and pictures of any kind, to adore and serve them, as the idolaters did.

Q. Is it lawful to pray to images and pictures? A. By no means; for they have neither life, nor sense, nor power to hear or help us.

Q. What is forbidden by the words: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain"? A. These words forbid all profanation of the holy name of God.

Q. What are we commanded by the words: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy"? A. We are commanded to keep holy the Lord's day.

Q. How is the Lord's day profaned? A. The Lord's day is profaned by unnecessary worldly business, dissipation, drinking, dancing, and whatever else tends to make it a day of revelry and scandal rather than of rest and prayer.

Q. What are we commanded by the words: "Honor thy father and thy mother"? A. We are commanded to love, honor, and obey our parents and superiors in all that is not sinful.

Q. What are we commanded by this commandment: "Thou shalt not kill"? A. We are commanded by this commandment to live in peace and union with our neighbor, to respect his rights, to seek his spiritual and bodily welfare, and to take proper care of our own life and health.

Q. What is forbidden by this commandment: "Thou shalt not commit adultery"? A. This commandment forbids all unchaste freedom with another's wife or husband; also all external acts of impurity, with ourselves or others, in looks, words, or actions, and everything that leads to impurity.

Q. What is forbidden by the commandment: "Thou shalt not steal"? A. All unjust taking or keeping what belongs to another.

Q. What else is forbidden by this commandment? A. All cheating in buying or selling; or any other injury done our neighbor in his property.

Q. What is commanded by this commandment? lawful debts and to give every one his own.

A. To pay our

"Thou shalt not

Q. What is forbidden by the commandment : bear false witness against thy neighbor"? A. This commandment forbids all false testimonies, rash judgments, slanders, and lies.

Q. What do the words, "Thou shalt not covet anything that is thy neighbor's," forbid? A. They forbid all wilful, unjust desires of our neighbor's goods.

Q. Why does God forbid evil desires? A. Because it is sinful to desire what it is sinful to do; because sinful thoughts and desires lead to sinful actions.

Q. Is it necessary to keep every one of the Ten Commandments? A. Yes; if a man offend in one, the observance of the others will not save him.

Q. What does Christ say of the observance of the commandments? A. Christ says: "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." Q. Of what life does Christ speak? A. Of everlasting life in the kingdom of his glory, where the just shall see and enjoy God forever. Q. What will Christ say to the good on the last day. A. Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you."

44

Q. What shall Christ say to the wicked on the last day? A. "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels."

Q. What should we always bear in mind? A. That in the judgment Jesus Christ will render to every man according to his works; and that it profits a man nothing to gain the whole world, if he lose his soul.

(The conclusion of the second part of the book, which gives “A Short History of the Christian Religion," is as follows):

Q. What conclusion must we draw from this history of religion? A. We must conclude that the religion which unites man with God goes back to the beginning of the world. Since the fall of man the central figure of revealed religion has been one and the same, the Redeemer, the Messiah.

Whether expected, or already come, Jesus Christ is the foundation of religion; eternal salvation was never at any time possible, except through him. He alone can destroy sin and lead men to happiness.

Jesus Christ, as the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, existed before his incarnation and lives after his death on the cross. He speaks, he teaches, he commands, he forbids, he combats, and he triumphs. All men die and all the works of men pass away. The religion of Jesus Christ lives and abides forever.