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(c.) Plea and Prayer for Religious Unity.

"And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd."

"Holy Father, keep them whom Thou hast given me in Thy name, that they may be one even as we are. Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth. Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one, even as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us-I in them and Thou in me, that they may be perfected into one."

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II. POETIC SUGGESTIONS.

If some new phase of truth thy toil discover

Thine inmost eye with some bright vision blest―
Conceal it not, proclaim it as a lover

His love proclaims. Awhile, thine honored guest-
Thy new-found thought-secret perchance may hover
Near Thee alone! But there it must not rest."

-SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON.

66

What if cherished Creeds must fade?

Faith will never leave us;

God preserves what God has made,

Nor can Truth deceive us.

Let in light-the Holy Light!

Brothers, fear it never;

Darkness smiles and wrong grows right;

Let in light forever!

"All before us lies the way,

Give the past unto the wind.

All before us is the day,

Night and darkness are behind.

-WHITTIER.

Eden, with its angels bold

Love, and Peace, and Purity-
Is not an ancient story told,

But a glowing prophecy."

-WHITTIER.

III.-MODERN SANCTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS.

"It is almost certain that the Church will soon begin the reconstruction of Dogma, and that men are living who will have share in the enterprise. The material is rapidly accumulating for the work, and the Church will soon demand that the results of the New Criticism and the New Exegesis be gathered and stated to the world. This is a time for which many are praying.

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It is to be hoped that

every branch of the Christian Church will soon exact no other pledge of her teachers than a declaration of faith in Jesus as the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, and a promise to keep His commandments; and otherwise to grant to them the fullest freedom of thought and expression."-The Rev. John Watson, D.D. [Ian Maclaren] in the Lyman Beecher Divinity Lectures at Yale University, 1896.

"The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Manthat is the simple creed that has given inspiration to every religion that has ever struck its roots deep down in the human heart; and no other belief to-day is so dominant among the forces that are making civilizations over again. It marks the point of divergence from the old religions and social systems whose fundamental thought was, 'God made man, therefore He has a right to damn him.' 'Not so,' say those who speak for a new interpretation of the old dogmas. 'Rather let us say, God made man, therefore He will bless him.' The old creed has always driven men apart the new creed will draw them together."-From a recent editorial of the New York Tribune.

[The following, from a recent Sermon by Bishop Henry C. Potter, D.D., is as true of our religious as it is of our so

cial and political conditions—as applicable to the Church as it is to the State:]

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"This is a universe of order, not of chance nor of freak. Just because behind it there is the sovereign Source of all laws, therefore no mere human caprice can suspend those laws. Into this universe of fixed laws the Author of it has introduced a being with the mysterious and inestimable gift of moral freedom. To him has been vouchsafed not only will, but freedom of the will. He may work, or he may dream. He may sow wheat or tares. But whatsoever a man soweth, that'-not something else—' shall he also reap' the harvest whose seed he has sown; not the harvest which he has merely wished for, or coveted, or imagined. As in imperial Rome, glutted with the wealth of her conquests, and drunk and dizzy with the infamy of her vices, there has risen, with much material prosperity, the loathsome spectacle of manhood without virtue, of womanhood without shame, of a people glorying in its degradation, and rotten to the very core. Harvests, plenty, wealth: what are they but the possible instruments of an unutterable degradation, save as they are held as a stewardship for highest ends, and used as agencies for man's service and God's honor? This may seem a harsh statement, but its substantial accuracy is very easily tested. . . . For what, in one word, is our condition? I maintain-and I challenge contradiction of that statement-that it is one in which independent action has largely perished. Largely, but not wholly, thank God! The other day on the floor of Congress a member who had convictions gave expression to them, and announced his intention of voting, whatever his party might do, in accordance with them. Said a fellow-member, as he sat down: You are right, and I agree with you. If I too had the courage of my convictions, I should do as you will do. But I have not; and so, I shall not.'

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"A poor creature, we say! A coward, without principle; or, at least, with principles too weak to make him do his duty! Yes; but who is responsible for him? Again I say, my brother, you and I. There are wrongs to be righted

which, because they have sometimes been exaggerated by rash and reckless men, cannot, nevertheless, wisely be ignored. Above all, there is a noisy and aggressive self-confi

dence which may well make us tremble.

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Ours is a

heritage of great ideals. It is these that we must sow in the hearts of the people. Let us not be slow to do it."

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"A sturdy stock that suffered exile rather than forego the right of free thought and free speech. These are the people who are the salt of the earth. And yet as I read history I see that they are the people who have been hunted with dogs and followed by armed men carrying fagots. .. Take from America the Puritans, Huguenots, Quakers and other like-minded reformers of Church and State, and it is no longer the land of the free or the home of the brave."

[The following are recent words by the Rector of St. Peter's Episcopal Church of Albany, N. Y.] :

"In every department of thought a new theory or fact is a disturbance and an affront. It intrudes upon men's leisures. It breaks crystallized thought and dislocates mental habits. With the mass of people, a new fact, and especially a new theory, is an intellectual tramp who is unceremoniously turned out of doors with an exhortation to work for his living. This is especially true in regard to facts or theories which compel men to revise those interpretations and opinions which, while not authorized by, are more or less associated with the traditional religion. The new theory or fact has, therefore, got to fight and turn out of doors the orthodox belief before it can take and occupy its place."

"Obviously, then, one needful part of the process of reformation in theology which is now happily in progress, is to emancipate men's minds from the tyranny of creedal language, and bring them back to the simplicity of Biblical language. This will greatly help to make religion more true than it has been to the actual facts of human life, relations, and experience. Heartily do we wish success to the new reformation."

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