Earlier text: THE TWO GREAT PRINCIPLES OF THE LAWSIGNS OF THE TIMES SEEN AT THE CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION.
By J. C. Bartholf
TO ANY ONE at all conversant with the teachings of God's Word, attendance at a world's convention of the Society of Christian Endeavor will reveal many convincing evidences of the nearness of the end of this dispensation and the soon coming of our blessed Lord. Not only do the utterances of different prominent speakers confirm and emphasize the fulfilment of prophecy as shown in the prevailing political and social unrest, but also in the coldness and indifferentism everywhere so manifest in the popular churches of the day. The mind of the intelligent Bible student can scarcely refrain from reverting to the prophetic utterance of Isaiah, which reads: "Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy;" when he listens to sentiments such as these at the Christian Endeavor Convention recently held at Detroit, Mich., expressed by Rev. Cornelius Brett, D. D., of Jersey City, N. J., when he said:— I believe that one of the things the future has in store is a federation of churches; not a union, but a federation. There will come to be great gatherings of Christian people in convention, at which all shades of Christian thought will be represented. Speaking of Pharisaism in the church, Canon J. B. Richardson, of London, Ontario, very truthfully said:— A prevalent disorder in the church is the carelessness of many people, that sort of Pharisaism which leads them to think they are no worse than their neighbors—although none would boast of being any better. This spirit of don't care leads to that other condition of mind when people go to their churches, not because they wish to pray, but because it is the proper thing, or because they wish to hear good singing or enjoy a sermon. In a very able and heart-searching sermon, Rev. Dr. Charles E. Jefferson, of New York City, thus truthfully but severely set forth the conditions very generally obtaining in the church life of the day:— What do ye more than others, Christian men and women of America? What do ye for others? Are you not the same as those to whom Jesus first addressed those stirring words? Do you not wish good returned for good and favor returned for favor? How many young men come from small towns to our great cities and live in dreary boarding houses and lodgings. Tell me, men, how often have you invited those young men to your homes and tables, to cheer them and help them in their struggles. And you, Christian women, how often have you invited young girls and women, who are struggling for their daily bread, to your homes to arouse them from the sickness of soul and the weariness they have fallen into? O, the world is so hard, so cruel, so greedy, so grasping and they, sensitive, delicate women like yourselves, who are weary from the acres of brick and stone all around them, battle in it alone, and you do nothing to help them. Shame on you, men and women who, when the social year is over, can remember no one invited to your feasts and fetes who is below you in station, who does not belong to your set. Even the most degraded woman who flaunts her fineries in the face of her associates, is as good as you in this, for she invites only those who will invite her, and who can return her favor with favor. What do we more than she? Most of the men in this congregation have employees under them. How do you treat them? As so many hands who only contribute to your prosperity, or as human, breathing, feeling people? How often do you give them a word of praise, even when deserved? The human heart does so love a word of commendation now and then. I do not take any interest in contributions to foreign missions given by men who treat their employees like machines of iron or steel. I tell you, there is a fierce muttering in the hearts of men which seems ominous to students of history. There is not the feeling there should be between employer and employee, and the thing the church must do to-day is to sweeten the feeling between labor and capital. And you, Christian women! What is your attitude towards your servants? What kind of bed do they sleep on? What kind of room do they live in, and do you ever talk to them about their intellectual condition, or don't you think they have any? Or are your servants cases like those of a girl in Massachusetts who, when she lay dying, said to my wife, "My mistress is a very good woman. She is interested in many foreign and local charities and is an untiring worker in the cause of the church, but in all the seven years I have worked for her, she has never said aught but words of reproof to me." Think of that! Would your servants say the same? What do ye more than others? What is your attitude towards the church? Do you limit your devotion to the hours it is customary to worship in our churches? Do you buy your church pews as you would chairs at an opera? The truth of the position taken by Dr. Jefferson was fully sustained by Mr. Robert E. Speer, a prominent official of the Presbyterian Board of Missions, who, among other things, said:— One-half of the earth has views of the other half. One-half cares not for the other half. Never was there more hypocritical talk going the rounds, about loving one another, than there is to-day. Prof. Graham Taylor, of Chicago, who has for fifteen years voluntarily lived in the slums of that city, for the purpose of bringing to their wretched life the light and blessings of Christ's Gospel, evidently came to the Endeavor Convention with a burdened heart and a distinct message, as these thrilling words clearly indicate:— There is a great deal more talk about religion than there is religion itself. If there be not a new note struck, if we do not fill the old words with new meaning, the world will not long believe. After fifteen years among the working classes, I can say that there is no antipathy among them against real religion, but I can not express to you their antipathy to the church. There is an almost impassable gulf between them, that only the brotherhood of Christ can bridge. But one touch of the brotherhood of Christ will put to flight years of antipathy. There is more religion in solution everywhere than there is precipitated in any church institution. In all my experience, even in the depths of underground Chicago, Christ's name I found above every other name, and I have heard but two men attack His character or His purpose. We need to test the consecration within by the need of it without. In the struggle between the everlasting right and the never-ending wrong, the need of the hour is new consecration. We need a new oath of allegiance to the King and to His kingdom, and yet that new consecration is as old as religion itself. Consecration is tested by taking part with the common cause of common men. Christ's separation to God meant His union with men. Ours is a religion of relationship. The old theologian who said that to be religious meant to think only of Christ and yourself, gave utterance to the most anti-Christian thought that was ever written. Christianity means relationship. Are we ready to fully believe that the Gospel is the thing to live by, not merely something to have faith in? If so, how do we reconcile the killing of the Filipinos? Can we say, "Blessed are the merciful," when in business life everywhere it is a case of crowding or be crowded to the wall? Can we say, "Do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you," when business is conducted, for example, as it is in the Chicago wheat pit? Can a man love his neighbor as himself and not be ruined in his business? We must either lower the idea of Jesus or raise the idea of practise. I say, Sink with the flag at the masthead rather than float on any bottom with the flag at half-mast. You would be surprised to learn as I have how much the common people know about these things. The poor man is more wide-awake than you think, more than many ministers in the pulpit. The cross must be more than an ornament on the church spires or a charm for our watch-chains. Are you holding on to a little class-life when the great mass-life calls you? Instead of singing, "Throw Out the Life-line," are you willing to live where the life-line is slimy and you stand in mud up to your waist? Are you willing to live in the neighborhood where you can do the most good, where you can raise up those about you by your example of living? How do you compare with that standard of consecration? You'll be dead? Yes, but only hidden with Christ in God. When one considers political, social, and economic conditions, the side-lights thrown thereon by leading speakers at the Endeavor Convention reveal how fully current events are fulfilling the predictions of God's Word. Among other things Dr. Jefferson, of New York, well said:— You have all heard of the Peace Congress. The peace problem is the greatest problem of the century. Peace! What peace has Europe at present? It has a debt of $200,000,000,000, and yet it is now spending more money for war-ships and for the army than ever before. There is no peace. Wars are the curse of the world. The century opened with the wars of Napoleon, that most infernal robber the world ever knew. Between the battle of Amiens and the defeat of Waterloo was born the present labor unrest, that blind Samson who will some day trample upon those who have oppressed it. Ætna will some day explode. Some people wonder why there are so many Nihilists. As to me, I am amazed that Europe has not been blown sky high long before this. Therefore, Christian men and women, do all in your power to keep down navy and army. Let Bismarcks, Von Moltkes, and Napoleons, robbers and murderers all of them, occupy themselves on war, but you do as that great Master counseled, "Love your enemies." We are living in the greatest of centuries. With such tremendous powers in our hands it does not seem possible for us to be lost. Now that it seems that God means us to be a leader of nations and races, it looks as if the republic could not go down. But Greece fell; Rome fell. The present is no guarantee of the future. God's wrath fell upon these people. God has said that sin is a reproach to any nation; that those who forget Him shall be punished. There is danger that America may forget God. One man says we need a new industrial system, another says we need socialism, another says we need a new system of taxation, another urges a new political party, others say larger markets, others more education. These are all superficial. What this nation6 needs is more manhood, the manhood of the Carpenter of Nazareth. God give us manly men, men whom the spoils of politics will not buy, men who will not be ruled by selfishness. What are we going to do with the liquor traffic, the traffic that is worse than the combined ravages of pestilence and war? New legislation! It is not new legislation we want, but a great outpouring of the Spirit that will crush the liquor traffic. How are we going to bridge the social chasms in the life of our cities?—Let us have the spirit of the Man who ate with publicans and sinners. What shall we do with the great corporations that devour the small ones? Law is not enough. What we need is love. What shall we do with militarism, one of the blackest demons that ever came out of the pit? They are sick of militarism across the sea, but there are men and women in America to whom the song of battle is sweet. Militarism is insanity; we can't beat it down with argument. Read the life of the Man who rode—not on a horse, for it represented war—but on the animal that stood for industry and patience. The Prince of Peace told us to beat the swords into plowshares. What shall we do with skepticism? We are surrounded by Theosophy, Esoteric Buddhism, Mormonism, and other strange teachings. Let us go to Him who represents truth itself. We have law enough, intellect enough—no nation ever had more. We have knowledge. Our boys and girls outstrip the Solons. We know a thousand things Plato and Socrates never dreamt of. We have all these, but what we need is a higher, diviner, sweeter type of manhood. America's great redemption, her one salvation, is love of and obedience to the Man who died on Calvary, Jesus Christ, the King of kings, the Lord of lords. Another speaker, Rev. Dr. Boyd, of St. Louis, thus graphically set forth the industrial conditions now obtaining in the United States:— If a man should go through this country with his ears shut and his eyes open, he would see so many evidences of prosperity that he would have no fear of the country's future; but if a man should go through the country with his eyes shut and his ears open, he would hear so many cries from so many different directions that he would have fears that the country is about to fall. The problems are legion. Much more of a similar nature might be quoted from speeches and addresses delivered at Detroit, to show that the signs of the end are multiplying all about us. May these things lead us all to greater diligence in the study of God's holy Word, to greater faithfulness in performing the duties therein plainly enjoined, and to greater loyalty to our soon-coming King and Saviour, Jesus Christ the Righteous, "the Chiefest among ten thousand," the One "altogether lovely." J. C. BARTHOLF. "STRENGTHEN THE HAND OF THE POOR AND NEEDY."
By David Paulson, M. D.
WE find in a careful study of Ezek. 16:49 that the iniquity of Sodom was of four kinds: Pride, fulness of bread, abundance of idleness, and neglecting to strengthen the hands of the poor and needy. We will now take up the study of the last-named root of her trouble. In the first chapter of Isaiah, the first fifteen verses, we notice that this wonderful chapter is dealing with the same thought as James 1:27. "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world." The prophet reproves the professed people of God for their neglect of the practical phase of Christianity, and tells them that he has no regard for the forms and ceremonies which they are strictly observing. "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me?" When we have pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness, and are neglecting to help the poor and needy, of what use is it that we say grace at the table, go to meeting on Sabbaths, pay tithe, make offerings to the Lord, and do in a perfunctory way all the other things that Christians are supposed to do? God does not accept such service. He says here that even the solemn meetings are iniquity in His sight; and when we spread forth our hands in prayer, He will hide His eyes from us. For He says, "Your hands are full of blood." How is that? Have we committed the overt act of murder? No, but we have rejected light, neglected opportunities to save souls by giving Christ to them, lived selfish, exclusive lives when we should have been engaged in loving service for God; therefore blood is on our garments. What are we to do? "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed; judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." And what next? "Come now, and let us reason together," etc. That is, come after you have done the things mentioned in the preceding verses. And when we come in this way, we need not plead with God to forgive us our sins, for it has already been done and we need only to accept the fact. A patient said to me the other day: "I can't pray any harder than that; do you think that God will hear me?" I told the poor man that God was more anxious to hear and answer his prayers than he was to utter them. When the prodigal son was yet a great way off, the father ran to meet him. One of the first things he did was to put the best robe on him; that corresponds, you see, to God's putting the robe of Christ's righteousness upon us. That father did not tell his returned son to take off his rags himself; no, he commanded the servants to do it for him. What loving, gentle care! So when Joshua, the high priest, stood before the Lord with filthy garments, and Satan was bringing accusation against him, the word was: "The Lord rebuke thee, Satan," and commandment was given, "Take away the filthy garments from him," followed by the gracious announcement, "Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee." 1 John 4:17 expresses our position in the world: "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world." We are in the world for the same work that Christ was here. He went about doing good, strengthening the hands of the poor and needy. That is our work. And Christ will impart to us the same love which He has if we will ask Him for it. Job was this sort of a Christian. He tells how he was eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, and always ready to help the poor and fallen. Job was also a man of great wealth, and must have been a busy man; but he took time for just such little things as these. So God could say that he was a perfect man. I learned a beautiful lesson a short time ago from the construction of a large building. There was a time when it seemed to me that the work went very slowly; I wondered why the workmen did not put on the cornice, and put the windows in, and put on more of the finishing touches. I asked the master workman, and he replied, "We are doing more important work on the inside." They were putting up those strong pillars that sustained the building, and doing other things that did not show quite so much on the outside, but were, nevertheless, sometimes exceedingly important. So it is in character building. But if God is at work in our hearts, we can trust Him with the undertaking. If He has begun the good work He is able to complete it. All we need to do is to make sure that we are being built up in Christ and trust Him fully, and He will do the rest. Then let us open our hearts to the poor and needy, and enter more fully into the work of our Master, which was going about doing good. As we do this, our own hearts will be transformed under the mighty hand of God, and we shall be ready for the home above. NATURE OF PUNISHMENT.
By Wm. Penniman
AS DEATH, or cessation of existence, was the doom of Adam, and was only prevented by Christ's coming as the resurrection and the life, so the second death will be an entire cessation of existence. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Eze. 18:4. "The wages of sin is death." Rom. 6:23. "I have set before you life and death." Deut. 30:19. It may be said that death, or cessation of life, is not a punishment. Webster defines the word "punish," "to afflict with pain, loss, or calamity." Therefore punishment may imply a loss. What is meant by capital punishment, or punishment by death? Does it consist only in the momentary pain suffered, as in the case of strangulation? or in the more instantaneous work of electrocution? or is it in the loss or deprivation of life? If the person who is thus punished, should be brought to life again in one year, would not the punishment be for that length of time? and if in ten years, it would be a ten years' punishment; and if never brought to life, it would be an everlasting punishment, or loss of life. The Greek word kolasin, translated punishment in Matt. 25:46, is used in the sense of "cut off," one meaning of the Greek verb, kolago. Therefore it may mean that the wicked will be eternally "cut off" from life, but the righteous will enter into life eternal. Heb. 6:2 speaks of eternal judgment. Is, therefore, the judgment never to expire? It is eternal, since it is an eternal decision, one without reprieve or alteration. Just so it is as to eternal punishment. Agreeing with this exposition of Matt. 25:46 is 2 Thess. 1:9. The apostle, speaking of those who "obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ," says, "who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power." This must mean eternal cessation of being. Truly says the prophet, in speaking of the wicked, "They shall be as tho they had not been." But is not 2 Thess. 1:9 a sufficient testimony against eternal torment? In truth, it seems to be so strong and plain, that if there was not another of its kind in the Bible (yet there are many), it would be enough to overthrow the doctrine of the "eternity of suffering." Mark: this punishment is not represented as consisting in eternal torment, but in an "everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power." It is evident that their punishment consists in total banishment from the presence, power, and glory of the Lord. The question arises, Can a person in any part of God's universe be free from His presence? The psalmist says (Ps. 139:7-10): "Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me." Where in the universe is one free from the power of God?—In no part of it. Therefore, if the sinner is to forever burn in a "lake of fire,"7 God must exert His infinite power to prolong life. When the wicked are punished with an "everlasting destruction," or "be as tho they had not been," then, and then only, will they be free from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power. We will now quote a few other texts in the same line:— "Thou hast rebuked the heathen, Thou hast destroyed the wicked, Thou hast put out their name forever and ever." Ps. 9:5. If the names of the wicked are destroyed and forgotten, what more is there left of them? The context still further explains: "O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end; and Thou hast destroyed cities, and their memorial is perished with them." Here destruction itself is represented as having an end. This is equivalent to the "second death," which is the destruction, or the casting of death and hell into the lake of fire. In connection with the preceding verse we read: "But the Lord shall endure forever." This contrast plainly implies that the wicked shall not endure forever. "But the transgressors shall be destroyed together; the end of the wicked shall be cut off." Ps. 37:38. "Where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched." Mark 9:48. This passage is explained quite similarly to the one in Matthew which alludes to the chaff being burned up with unquenchable fire, and will be better understood by looking into the meaning of "hell fire" in the context. The word translated "hell fire" is literally "gehenna of fire." It is defined by Greenfield thus:— Gehenna, the Valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem, once celebrated for the horrid worship of Moloch, and afterward polluted with every species of filth, as well as the carcasses of animals, and dead bodies of malefactors; to consume which, in order to arrest the pestilence which such a mass of corruption would occasion, constant fires are kept burning. The author of "Here and Hereafter," p. 346, in commenting upon this definition or text, says:— This was the scene to which Christ pointed His hearers to represent the doom that awaits the wicked, in order that, as they gazed upon the work of complete destruction going on in the Valley of Hinnom—the worms devouring what the flames spared—they might learn that in the true gehenna, which awaited them, no part of their being would be exempt from utter and complete destruction, one agent of death completing what another failed to accomplish. Again: from the same page from which we have quoted we quote in respect to the term "unquenchable fire" ("pur asbestos") as follows:— As the definition of the word ge-enna throws great light on the meaning of this text, so the definition of another term used is equally to the point. The words for "unquenchable fire" are "pur asbestos," and the word "asbestos" primarily means simply "unquenched," that is, not caused to cease by any external means. The idea of eternal is a theological definition which has been attached to it. Ancient writers used it in this sense. Homer in the Iliad, 16, 123, 294, speaks of the Trojans hurling unquenchable fire upon the Grecian ships, tho but one of them was burnt by it. Eusebius, who was a learned Greek, employs the same expression in two instances in recounting the martyrdom of Christians. Crowin and Julian, after being tortured in various ways, were consumed in an "unquenchable fire" (puri asbestos). The same is also said of Epimachus and Alexander. "The pur asbestos," says Westein, "denotes such a fire as can not be extinguished before it has consumed and destroyed all." Such is the evident meaning of this passage in the sense in which it must have been understood at that time. Yet commentators eighteen hundred years this side of that time, presume to turn the whole representation upside down, and give to the terms a meaning exactly opposite to that which they were intended to convey. The words of our Lord in Mark seem to have direct reference to Isa. 66:24: "And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against Me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh." Barnes, in commenting upon Mark 9:48, says:— This figure is taken from Isa. 66:24. The figure is taken from heaps of the dead slain in battle, and the prophet says that the number shall be so great that their worm, the worm feeding on the dead, shall not die; and shall live long—as long as there are carcasses to be devoured; and that the fire which was used to burn the bodies of the dead shall continue long to burn, and shall not be extinguished till they are consumed. . . The figure, therefore, denotes great misery, and certain and terrible destruction. If the word implies extinction or extermination, it can not imply eternal life in misery. We read (Rev. 20:14): "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death." Here we have the Bible definition of the "second death," and it is worth more than all the theological or man-made definitions in the world. The "second death" is therefore the death of death, or the destruction of death itself. This is what is meant by the words, "The end [death] of the wicked shall be cut off." It is forcible language, showing that the wicked are forever "cut off" from life. The word "hell" in this text is from hades, meaning the grave. It would not make sense to speak of hell being cast into hell. But, says one, are there not degrees in the punishment of the wicked? Most certainly, for the Bible teaches this (Rev. 22:12): "And, behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man [saint and sinner] according as his work shall be." This plainly teaches that all will be recompensed according to their deeds. On this point we quote briefly from "Here and Hereafter," p. 331:— Let us ask believers in eternal misery how they will maintain degrees in their system.
. . . But God can interpose, it is answered, to produce the effect desired. Very well, then, we reply, can not he also interpose, if necessary, according to our view? God can easily grade the suffering and the length of time in which the wicked will suffer before their final destruction. Reader, let us not fail to gain a home in the "new earth" (Rev. 21:1), where there will be "no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away." Verse 4. WM. PENNIMAN.
Woodburn, Ill. WHAT IS IT TO BE A CHRISTIAN?
By Rev. J. B. Silcox
WHAT is it to be a Christian? Is it to believe some particular doctrine? Is it to sign a creed? Is it to join a church? Is it to conform to a ceremony? Is it to observe an ordinance? A man can do all this and not be within astronomic distance of Christianity. It is written, “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” We bear the name of Jesus; the real question is, Do we possess the Spirit of Jesus? Are we modeling our life after His life? Have we made the principles of His life the principles of our life? To be a Christian is to duplicate the character of Jesus in our own. It is to live for the same end that He lived for. His sacrifice on the cross is not merely an object of pious meditation. It is rather the revelation of a law of life. To be a Christian is to live for men as Jesus lived for men. It is to be unselfishly consecrated to the service of humanity. We are in the world for the same purpose that Jesus was in it. We are in it to save it. “Father, as Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.” The mission of Jesus is to be our mission. According to our ability and opportunity, we are as responsible for the world’s redemption as Jesus was. We have no more right to carry on our business for personal profit than Jesus had to live His life on earth for personal profit. You can not think of Jesus living in a city indifferent to the physical and moral conditions of the people. It is as obligatory on us to better the physical and moral conditions of mankind as it was on Jesus. To be a Christian is to duplicate Jesus in service to humanity. When Jesus was on earth there gathered about Him all sorts of folks. He did not belong to any set or sect. Those high up and those low down found in Him a genial friend and helpful brother. He was the meeting-place of the rich and poor, the learned and the illiterate. He manifested personal sympathy with and loving interest in all who came. He did not seem to notice the social and racial differences that separated man. He welcomed the wealthy nobleman and the impoverished prodigal with equal cordiality. Jesus loved His kind. He called Himself the Son of man. He was not ashamed to call men His brethren. He loved men, not because of their wealth, or culture, or position, but because they were men, men made in the image of God, His Father. His sympathies went out in every direction. He looked on every man as His brother, on every woman as His sister. He fraternized with everybody. He brothered and mothered all kinds of folks. Jesus went down to the lowest levels of life. He got down under the submerged. He came into this world not through the golden portals of wealth, but in the swaddling-clothes of poverty. He came in by the manger. He went out by the cross. He lived a poor man among poor men. He knew by experience what the limitations and sufferings of the poor were. He had not where to lay His head. When He died He was buried in a borrowed tomb. Jesus ran through the whole gamut of human experience—from a manger on earth to a mansion in heaven, from a convict’s scaffold to a King’s throne, from the weakness of a babe to the omnipotence of a God. He was tempted in all points as we are. He is able to sympathize with humanity in every experience. What I ask you to remember about His divinely human life is, He gave Himself to men and for men. He consecrated all He had and was to the betterment of the race. He said, “I sanctify Myself; I set Myself apart to this work, the salvation and elevation of humanity.” Other men live for wealth, for position, for pleasure; Jesus lived for humanity. He gave His strength to the weak, His wisdom to the ignorant, His purity to the polluted, His refinement to the rude. His whole life, from Bethlehem’s manger to Bethany’s mount, declares that He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. He who was all nobleness and refinement; He in whom were all the treasures of wisdom and poetry and art; He who was immeasurably above the highest of the high; He who was God manifest in the flesh—joined Himself to humanity, poured Himself into humanity, mingled familiarly with the ignorant and degraded, showed friendship to outcasts and harlots, ate with publicans and sinners—did it from choice, did it out of genuine sympathy, did it that He might lift humanity to higher levels, even to the level of His own transcendently beautiful life. He brought all the riches of His intellectual nature, all the refinement of His moral nature, all the inspiration of His spiritual nature, all the fulness of His divine nature, to bear on the thought and life and character of the lowest, that He might redeem them from the blighting curse of sin and elevate them to the glory of regenerated spiritual manhood. The greatness of Jesus is the greatness of service. THE tenement-house problem in the large cities is one of the gravest of our time. City life at its very best is almost wholly artificial. But when taken in its lowest forms it is the most degrading. A recent report tells of sixty-six old tenement houses in New York City, in which 5,640 people lived. It need not be wondered at that the report further states that one-fourth of these tenants died within the short space of five years. A great effort, and with much success, has been made in New York to have the old traps of tenement houses torn down and replaced by modern buildings that were at least sanitary and also afforded better light and air. A capitalist company bought nineteen lots, upon which they built apartment houses according to the best modern skill. They no doubt did it for the money they could make, but we are assured that particular pains was taken to have these buildings as comfortable and healthful in their arrangments and construction as possible. The buildings on these nineteen lots have 373 apartments in them. And that means that 373 families will be huddled together in rooms—or apartments if you prefer the term—on these few small city lots. Now think of what some of these figures mean. The 5,640 persons that were in the sixty-six old buildings would make a fair-sized little city. Call to mind some town of between five and six thousand, and then imagine all its inhabitants compressed into sixty-six old smoky, dark, dirty tenements. Or if you consider the nineteen buildings with 373 families, you will need to count on from 2,000 to 3,000 inhabitants. Such places can hardly be thought of under the endearing name, home. They seem more like the burrowing-places of wild animals. There are none of our large cities but what have these tenement slums. They are the breeding-places of the lowest vices and crimes. How can pure and elevating thoughts and actions emanate from such sinks of filth and iniquity? And how can men be led into the delusion that the world is getting better when thousands of professing Christians continue to offer up their pharisaical prayers without even a thought of seeking to relieve the miseries and combat the wickedness of these moral cesspools that exist in all the cities? It is only when men are carried away in an oratorical trance to behold just a few of the best things that may be seen, that they get the idea that the world is growing better. When they take a calm survey of all the naked facts there is an irresistible consciousness of the terrible condition of this old sin-cursed earth, and a definite impression of the fact that the Lord must soon come to destroy it.