is character. The state receives its ultimate rating in history and in the common judgment of the world by the type of manhood it produces. So the quality of the family is estimated by the qualities it breeds and develops in its children. By the same law that filial reverence begets self-restraint and self-denial with reference to the earnings and savings of industry, it also puts a curb upon the passions. There is no single motive, at least, among young people, in the tender and plastic period in which the influences that shape the character are most effective which is so powerful as affection for parents. How often does the young man stand rebuked in the presence of a terrible temptation as he recalls the integrity and devotion of his father! How often for his sake does he turn from the path of evil and walk in the way of virtue! Nay, how often is the youth delivered from the yawning gulf of iniquity and the power of sin by the remembrance of a mother's purity and love! All the virtues so diligently inculcated in the home circle are indelibly stamped upon the mind through affection, and to the last hour of the longest life continue to exert a moulding, restraining, guiding power over the soul.

Filial reverence also purifies and exalts the aim of youth. It curbs and restrains, to be sure, but it does more. It inspires the soul to independent and manly endeavor. Where there is a great love the child will not wish to live for his own gratification, but he will seek to give pleasure and comfort to the heart of the parent. The choice of a trade or calling in life, fidelity in the performance of appointed tasks, the reaching forth constantly to new and nobler achievements will all be in no small degree with reference to the pleasure and gratification of parents. This no doubt is in part the reason that the tendency of humanity is ever onward and upward; that no generation is contented with the achievements of its ancestors; that new ideals continually urge the soul to press on to some higher vantage ground of accomplishment and effort.

Above all it may be said that the tendency to idealize those

we love renders all great examples potent. Men may teach the young that they owe neither duty nor affection to those who are the earthly cause of their existence, that obligations of every sort are wholly of the other side, yet love springs up unbidden in the tender heart of the child, and no philosophy, however frigid, can extinguish it. Moreover, where love is, duty flows forth as naturally and freely as water from a fountain. The two can no more be separated from each other than light and heat in the sun's rays. But the most striking peculiarity of love is that it exalts the objects on which it feeds. It sees them ever transfigured before it surrounded with a halo of beauty and glory. The father may be the most prosaic and commonplace person in the world, but to the child who loves him he is a paragon of earthly dignity and manly power. The mother may be a very shrew in the esti mation of the world, but to her affectionate offspring she is the incarnation of womanly sweetness and grace. True the lapse of years may tend to some extent to dispel the illusions of youth. But all through life, nevertheless, men continue to measure things by the ideals of their childhood. The very fact that from their earliest existence they have been accustomed to have in their mind's eye exalted models of action renders them sensitive to whatever is great and noble in the conduct and achievements of men. In this way they are prepared for the application of the most profound and inspiring lessons of human history.

I would not be understood to utter the slightest protest against any reasonable application of the doctrine of evolution to human society, and, indeed, to every form of organic life among men. For I believe that here the movements of this great law may be the most distinctly traced; that here it displays its grandest energy; that here it discloses a new and higher function by coming into co-operation with human intelligence and yielding to the guidance of the human will; that here it is seen and felt to be not only the most subtle but the most powerful agency that does or can operate outside of the Divine revelation, and it may even become the

right arm of that for the development and exaltation of humanity; that here in short, it may be recognized as the one omnipotent instrumentality by which Jehovah himself performs his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. Yet it is perfectly evident that the extreme view of this doctrine, which makes man of no more account in the presence of this law than the lifeless atoms which it is the business of physical science to investigate, or which would even leave him down on the same low plane as the brute creation and lay aside entirely from the problem of destiny, his intelligence, his affections, and his moral powers, making him the mere puppet of blind, ungovernable and relentless forces, affording him no choice but to make what poor shifts he can for his own self-interest before a fate which is as cold, unpitying and cruel as any that ever held sway in the imaginations of Grecian and Roman stoics,— it is perfectly evident that such a view must vanish when brought face to face with facts as we find them in human nature, in human society, in human history and in individual experience. President E. H. Capen, D.D.

ARTICLE XII.

The Province of the Clergyman.

IN discussing this subject, I make a distinction between the clergyman and the preacher. The former is the more comprehensive term. The duties of the latter are embraced in the sphere of the former. The clergyman not only preaches, but performs all the duties pertaining to the care of the parish. His services in the pulpit are important and cannot be dispensed with, but he has other duties, perhaps equally important, which belong legitimately to his province and must be performed. His province covers everything pertaining to the care of souls and the welfare of his church and the world.

We do not limit his work to the church, for if we do we leave the world outside destitute of the means of moral and religious instruction. If he is to gain converts, he must seek them in the world, and this must also be the field of his operations. "The field is the world" and in that he must labor.

But preliminary to the discussion of our main subject, comes the question which demands an answer: Is there any need of the Christian Ministry? Many say no. As the world grows more enlightened, there is less need of a class whose special duty pertains to the sphere of religion. In fact, religion is dying out, and science and philosophy are taking its place. The system of Comte is swaying many minds, and the rapid advances of natural science are overwhelming the religious element and plunging the world into the dark abyss of materialism. Hence the subject must be discussed anew: Is there any sphere left for the clergyman to occupy? We answer yes, not because this profession exists and we must find a place for it, but because there is a demand for it and this demand is based on a legitimate want.

Man is a religious being. All history proves this. Religion plays an important part in the history of past ages, and the progress of civilization and refinement does not weaken its power or narrow the sphere of its operations. The religious sentiment, ever active, is not smothered by the accumulation of scientific facts or philosophical speculations. Its activity may for a time be lessened, but not destroyed. After a season it renews its energies and achieves greater victories. In the earlier ages it revels in the mythical and the superstitious. In the later and more enlightened ages it accepts the results of advanced thinking and exhibits itself in more consistent and reasonable manifestations. Knowledge does not kill or weaken it, but only turns it into larger and more productive fields. Comte's doctrine that advance in civilization tends to destroy the religious sentiment, is not sustained by the facts of history.

The present age is one of great religious activity. And so long as the religious sentiment is alive in the human soul, its

wants must be supplied. And this supply must come chiefly from the word of God as presented in the Gospel of Jesus. This is as "cold water to the thirsty soul and good news from a far country." The figures used to express it show that it is adapted to man's higher nature. So long as this truth is needed to satisfy man's spiritual wants, men must be set apart and especially fitted for the work of explaining this truth and using it to awaken, restrain, guide, encourage and console men. Even if we admit that the power of the pulpit is declining, we cannot deny that Gospel truth is as precious as ever. The real worth of an article is not affected by the feelings of the people in relation to it. For more than eighteen hundred years has the institution of the Christian Ministry stood, enduring the shocks of time and the assaults of secret and open enemies, and it still stands unmoved and strongly entrenched in the hearts of men.

Jesus chose twelve lowly men to receive and propagate his truth. He sent them forth to establish his church. He subjected them to rigid training and gave them special instructions to enable them better to perform the duties of their holy mission. They and their successors have been in the field from that day to this. They have built up and enlarged the kingdom which Jesus established. Their influence has been felt to the utmost borders of the world. Civilization has been promoted, the progress of the race secured, moral reform stimulated, sin banished, crime lessened, souls converted from the error of their ways, and introduced to the joys and privileges of the inner kingdom, mourners comforted and all the higher interests of humanity cared for. The condition of the world to-day is infinitely better than it would have been had the order of the Christian Ministry never been instituted. It was not enough that Jesus addressed the people that thronged to listen to his words in Palestine. His doctrine must be conveyed to others living in different lands and successive ages. Men were delegated to do this. By their personal efforts, "the truth as it is in Jesus" was brought in contact with souls yearning for it and thus made to do its appropriate