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Georgia and Tennessee also show a decreased ratio. Virginia, Southern Florida and West Virginia hold their own. Good gains are made in Lexington, Florida, Kentucky and Southern Virginia; the greatest relative increase is that of South Carolina. If the Southeast does not quite maintain its record of last year, it must be remembered that the record in itself is good and that this section, now as before, leads the Church.

THE SOUTHWEST.

a fraction of a decimal below the general
average, the other sections being now
more nearly on a level with one another
than they have ever been, so far back as
our record extends. Los Angeles, Olympia
and California, each show some improve-
ment over last year; Sacramento holds its
own, Oregon alone shows a decline, but in
all the rest of the United States there are
only six dioceses or districts that have
not a better record this year in this re-
gard, than the best of the dioceses on the
Pacific Coast California, with only 16
baptisms for every 10 marriages. Sacra-
mento had 15, Los Angeles and Olympia
14, Oregon 10-one child brought to the
font for every two persons joined in mar-
riage-in a region singularly favored by
nature, with room enough and to spare.

West of the Mississippi, from the Missouri and Kansas line southward and westward to California there are fourteen dioceses and districts, three of which, Dallas, New Mexico and Salt Lake, must be omitted, since they give no record of marriages, and it may be worth while to Just what is the cause of this excepnote in passing that they do not distional situation on the Pacific Coast we tinguish infant from adult baptisms either. If the ratio between infant and adult do not know. It may perplex, and it cerbaptisms that exists in the whole Church tainly calls for the attention of those who is applicable to them, there has been some shape the policies of the Church. But it gain in Salt Lake over last year, and a should hct blind us to the fact that unloss, proportionally larger, in Dallas and satisfactory, as the situation is on the New Mexico; but this is conjectural. In Pacific it is improving, and that elsewhere the eight dioceses and three districts for the gains are most marked in the Northwhich we have records to justify a conetu-east, and Southwest and in the cities-presion there were 1,467 marriages and 2,772 infant baptisms, showing a ratio of 2.2, which is equal to that of the Church at large, while last year the ratio was only 1.9.

Salina, with 55 baptisms for every 10 marriages, makes the best showing. Arkansas with 26 and West Texas with 23 are above the general average of the Church; the others fall below it. In Louisiana and Kansas there were 20 baptisms to every 10 marriages; in Missouri and Texas, 17; in Kansas City and Arizona, 16; in Colorado and in Oklahoma and Indian Territory, 15. An improvement over last year is to be seen in Kansas City, Missouri, West Texas and Salina. Arizona and Arkansas hold their own; Colorado, Louisiana, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Indian Territory have not done quite so well. The conditions in this region are so peculiar that we ought, perhaps, to be well content that it should show a ratio equal to that of the Church at large. But surely we should not be content that the Church at large should not show a better record than this region, in a large part of which our bishops have to cope with dioceses of unwieldy size, and to contend against material difficulties probably greater than those in any other part of the country.

THE PACIFIC COAST.

cisely where they were most needed. The
Church is growing more homogeneous
North and South, East and West, in city
and country. These statistics seem to re-
flect also an increasing regard among our
people, in sections where divorce has most
prevailed, for the sanctities of domestic
life.

Architecture and the Church.

The well-known architect, Mr. John M. Carrere, toward the close of a recent lecture at Christ church, New Brighton, on "The Building of Churches," in seeking to fix the relation of architecture to the Church, seemed to think it more pertinent to ask, not whether we should dispense with tradition or ignore the historic sequence of evolution in building our houses of worship, but whether we could do so. Is it possible, he asked, to express our religious life in any style that we may prefer? Could we consistently reproduce the Gothic cathedrals of France and England? or the Renaissance buildings of Italy, Spain and Portugal? or a St. Paul's, or a Westminster Abbey, and claim that they expressed our life? They were buildings of another age, full of sentiment, replete with historical significance, a priceless inheritance; but our life, religious as well as social and political, was not the same as that of 300 years ago, still less like the life of the cathedral builders. Our life was, he said, more spiritual and more enlightened, higher, better, purer. We could not hope to express our life in their language or

The Pacific Coast offers in some respects the most perplexing problem of our vital statistics. It is in the main a young country, at least so far as Anglo-Saxons are concerned; it is a rich country; the conditions of life are easy; and yet the to picture our life by their architecture, spiritual birth-rate, though it shows here, as elsewhere, a slightly upward tendency, is the lowest, and very much the lowest, in all the United States.

In these coast dioceses and districts (omitting Alaska) there were this year 1, 407 marriages and 2,013 infant baptisms. Both totals are considerably in excess of those recorded last year, and the ratio, 1.4, is slightly greater. But it contrasts strongly with 2.2, the ratio for the Church as a whole, and this is the only section of the country that falls more than

by handing down to posterity buildings
that roused no thought or emotion other
than sentimental attachment or love of
the beautiful as expressed in another age.
How we should build was hard to say, but
surely we were not building as we should,
nor should we till we had achieved
greater unity of religious thought and
purpose. "When leading minds are agreed

and when a common ground has been
found and adopted-then, and not till
then, can we hope to grow, to develop
and eventually to produce an art that will

be a true and lasting expression of our age, of our ideals, of our life and of our religion."

There is much that is true in what Mr. Carrere has to say. We regret he did not go further and make definite and constructive suggestions for immediate use. However true his ideal may be, that unity of purpose is necessary to an adequate expression of our life and of our religion, we must go on building churches and cannot sit idly waiting for unity to come for the convenience of a church architect. The architect has his mission in the unity of Christendom as well as the priest and the prophet. Because our life is different from that of centuries ago it does not follow that we must express it in a different kind of language or a different kind of architecture. As Mr. Carrere has said, we could not, even if we would, "dispense with tradition or ignore the historic sequence of evolution in building houses of worship." There is evolution in language and in architecture as there is in life and in religion. Ours is not a different life in kind or a

our

different religion in kind, but only a difference in degree. Church building, to follow the course of our religious development, must be true to its history. Only as it is true to its evolution can it hope to interpret the changes in our religious life. But if architects are to do this, the building of churches must be taken more seriously than we have been accustomed to take it; greater demands must be made on the architect. There must be something prophetic in our church buildings as well as in the sermons preached in them. Vestries must not expect designs to be manufactured in a moment, in a month, or even, for great buildings, in a year. Time and thought, devotion and sacrifice are essential to open the mind of the architect to creative inspiration. A great church or a cathedral cannot be built as an engineer would build a bridge. There are cases in which less time is given to an architect to create a sermon in stone than an engineer of genius would demand to make plans for a great bridge. Inevitably and naturally what is intended to be a sermon in stone becomes a mass of unrelated matter, without suggestion of aspiration or inspiration, and with no message to humanity.

A VERY SIGNIFICANT ARTICLE, PERHAPS the most significant comment on the recent Interchurch Conference, is made by Father Sheedy in The Catholic Mirror of Baltimore, a paper that has long been supposed to reflect the sentiments of Cardinal Gibbons. Father Sheedy believes and hopes that the present century "may witness the reunion of Christendom," and says the Conference was "the most important and impressive religious gathering ever held among non-Catholics." Federation will, he says, add strength and influence to the various bodies concerned, and "ought to succeed in showing that there is a sound basis on which the different nonCatholic denominations of the country can stand." If ever Church unity is to be visibly attained, he says, “it will be brought

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about under some such form as this great conference in New York has assumed." Proofs abound that we have entered upon an era of better feeling and a more tolerant and Christian spirit among Christians. Everywhere it is recognized that the chief obstacle to the progress of the Gospel and the conversion of the world is the existence of divisions among Christians. "The desire for a reunion of Christendom is a striking characteristic of our times. Separated bodies of Christians are being drawn closer together every day. They

cease to think ill of each other and are uniting, wherever practicable, in charitable and other good works. This is the first step toward that final and perfect union for which Christ prayed. And should no further advance be made in our time,

every one is thankful for this better and more Christian feeling. Let us be done, then, with the gospel of hate, the impugning of motives, the cruel annoyance and the relentless persecution of former days. From many quarters are heard sweet sounds to the music of heaven, that tell of this universal desire for unity and peace. That desire finds expression in the tone of the denominational press and pulpit; in the action of various church bodies looking to Christian union; in the earnest discussions of the subject carried on in conference and synods; in the co-operation of Catholics and non-Catholics in temperance, sound politics, and charitable work." This is a new and auspicious note in Roman Catholic journalism,

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posed would check all revolution. What
it has done is to make the first bloodless
transition on legal lines. In time this
policy will bring order and civilization.
The control of revenue, for which each
new "general" yearns, is enough to steady
the excess of revolution and slowly intro-
duce the habit of legal procedure.

The Treasury deficit has
A Disappear-
been reduced $3,500,000
ing Deficit.
in December, and the
deficit for six months of the fiscal year is
half that of a year ago. It was then about
$20,000,000. It is now $9,000,000. It was
at the end of the fiscal year, last June,
$29,587,752. A still larger deficit was then
predicted at the end of the current fiscal
year. Representative Livingston, of the
Appropriation Committee, predicted
$93,000,000. The increase in customs and
internal revenue renders it probable that
the deficit will be small, and it may disap-
pear altogether.

The Panama

Report.

The Isthmian Canal Commission, in its report for the year ending Dec. 1, 1905, emphasizes at the outset and throughout its belief in the old proverb that more haste means less speed and that it is useless to expect satisfactory results in excavation unless there has been thorough preparation for housing, food supply and sanitation. The isthmus must be made fit to live in. That General Gorgas has done. The problem of sanitation, the Commission says, is no longer a formidable obstacle. For housing the Commission inherited 2,175 buildings, all in bad condition. It has destroyed 22, repaired 649, built 58, and has 67 more in the course of construction. It has organized its commissary department so that employees of every grade get good food at reasonable prices. But it still finds the question of labor perplexing. There is a superfluity of the inefficient. Tropical laborers can be had for from 80 cents to $1.04 a day. These men will do from a quarter to a third of what is expected of workmen in the United States, at least as long as the Commission has to

is exemplified by an event which, rightly apply to them the eight-hour law, of

Thus

whose existence four-fifths know nothing
till they arrive at the isthmus. The Com-
mission thinks that the application of
this law will add many millions unneces-
sarily to the cost of the canal, thereby in
creasing taxation at home and benefiting
a very small number of American la-
borers. It strongly recommends that
"labor on the isthmus be excluded from
the application of the eight-hour law, the
contract labor law, the Chinese Exclusion
Act, and any other law passed or to be
passed by Congress for the benefit of
American labor at home." Though all the
excavation thus far done would be ap-
plicable to any type of canal, the Commis-
sion thinks it of the utmost importance
that the question of level should be de-
cided with the least possible delay.

interpreted, shows the necessity of such an
extension of the Monroe Doctrine all the
more strongly. The agreement made last
January with President Morales, and
later embodied in the treaty now before
the Senate, was one neither with an in-
dividual nor a particular public officer,
but, like all such agreements and treaties,
between Governments. It no more pro-
posed to make Morales
a permanent
president than our treaty with Cuba does
President Palma. What was proposed by
the treaty was to prevent foreign inter-
ference by honestly collecting the revenue
and suppressing smuggling.
Dominica could meet the interest on her
foreign debt, and have a larger sum than
ever available for government expenses.
Incidentally the treaty freed trade in the
ports from revolutionary exactions. In-
surrection sprang up in the interior,
which President Morales was unable to
quell. His own cabinet was seamed with
disaffection. He has fled. The Vice-Presi-
dent Carceres has succeeded-well-nigh
the first time in Dominican history when
a constitutional devolution of power has
taken place. The revenue is still being
peaceably collected. The ports are free
from massacre and plunder. Trade is un-
interrupted. For a century Dominica Postmaster-General Cortelyou does in his

The
Postmaster-
General's
Report.

The bi-centennial of the
birth of our first Post-
master-General, Benja-
min Franklin, who had

been connected with the
colonial postal service since 1737, before
one of the first acts of the Continental
Congress placed him at the head of the
Post-Office Department in 1775, makes it
interesting and timely to contrast, as

was a prey to savagery.
Each "revolu- report, the service of his day and of ours.
tion" stood for brutal executions, rapine, When Franklin died there were in this
plunder and exactions from planter and country seventy-five post-offices. Now
merchant, which prevented any material there are 68,131. Then the receipts were
advance. He knew little of Dominica, $37,925; now they are $152,826,585. The
who expected that a mere treaty pro- expenses of the postal service in the year

of Franklin's death were $32,140; last year they were $167,399,169. Then the postal service employed about 500 persons; now 280,000. It will be seen that there was last year a deficit of $14,572,584. "I am less concerned about the deficit," says Mr. Cortelyou, "than I am about efficiency of administration." The increased cost is due largely to the extension of rural delivery, in which the number of persons employed has increased from 24,566 to 32,055, with a corresponding increase in the number of delivery routes. Attention should be called to the section of the report that deals with railway transportation and indicates, contrary to the general impression, that the compensation paid to railroads for carrying mail is not excessive, though the method of determining rates is pronounced "not altogether satisfactory." The suggestion is made that some kinds of second-class matter might be sent, not by fast mail, but by "fast freight." Those who have travelled abroad will be interested to learn that agents are being sent to study foreign postal systems, from which we have much to learn.

mended for ocean mail-carrying steamers, More generous subsidies are recomespecially those to South America. Of

more universal interest is the discussion of a domestic parcel post. The Postmaster-General doubts if this could be successfully organized to compete with the express companies, unless the rates were made to increase with the distance. He does not think it desirable to ask authority to establish such a system at present.

The four obstacles mentioned by Postmaster-General Wanamaker are perhaps still insuperable. But Mr. Cortelyou does earnestly recommend that fourthclass matter be merged hereafter in third-class; that is, that there be no

further

distinction attempted between printed matter and merchandise. This would "afford a great opportunity for distributing light packages to a multitude of places not reached by express companies, and at a charge sufficient to reimburse the Government." It is earnestly to be hoped that Congress may act on this

recommendation. The cost to the Gov

ernment of the franking privilege enjoyed by Congressmen and the departments is estimated at $19,822,000, or $5,000,000 more than the entire postal deficit. Mr.

Cortelyou finds "sound administrative

reasons why it would be better business policy for each department to pay postage upon its mail matter according to its class." We should then be able, among other things, to know what it costs the tax-payers to circulate campaign literature and to further the publishing activities of the Reform Bureau conducted by Dr. Crafts. Certainly, as the PostmasterGeneral says, by such a change "the tendency to use the mails for matter that ought to be otherwise transported would

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be restrained."

In taxing the importaThe Tax tion of works of art this on Art. country stands on a bad eminence and alone among civilized nations. We noticed some time ago the organized effort of American artists to free themselves from this humiliating "protection"; we have to chronicle now the introduction by the Hon. Wm. C. Lovering, of a bill into the House of Representatives to place works of art on the free list. The history of this tax affords a curious commentary on the wisdom of legislators, and from the very smallness and insignificance of the field, economically, gives us, as it were, a microcosmic view of the most important part of our fiscal system. This duty is as old as the

Civil War. For many years it was 10 per cent. In 1882 it was raised to 20 per cent. This was made the occasion of a circular letter to prominent American artists, asking them what they thought of the increase; 1,345 replied that they wished all duties on art might be abolished; 7 approved of the change. On the strength of this Congress was asked to alter the law, but refused. The artists, undiscouraged, persisted in their efforts to escape from protection, and in 1889 they succeeded in getting a free art bill through the House. The Senate refused to pass it, and a 15 per cent. compromise was agreed upon. The Wilson Bill put works of art on the free list, and the National Free Art League sang its Nunc Dimittis, but too soon, for in 1897 the artists were driven, again protesting, into the protection kraal. The tax protects nobody worthy of the name of artist; as a revenue-producer it is negligible. Its chief effect is to keep our people from the means of artistic education and to keep great works of art belonging to Americans out of the country. Incidentally it furnishes an object lesson in fiscal stupidity and stubbornness that might be hard to match even in the Dingley Tariff Act. Last year was one of heartsearchings and reforms, and we trust that the Lovering Bill may speedily become law.

A Prosperous

Year.

We do not yet know just what will be the value of imports and exports for 1905, but we know that they will be the greatest in our history, for the total for the last eleven months is more than that for any other twelve. Imports for the second time in our history have passed the billion dollar mark, exports for the first time have exceeded $1,500,000,000. Part of this gain is due to increase in price; a larger part to increase in quantity. Unless there has been an unexpected falling off in December, the exports of the year will total $1,600,000,000; the imports, $1,200,000,000. Our factories have demanded more raw materials than ever before; our wealth has admitted the purchase of more luxuries. It is only when we pass from the consideration of the aggregate to the question of its distribution, that there can be any question as to the character of our prosperity. Undoubtedly there is more wealth; but whose wealth? That is the vital question. The treasures of Mexico and Peru enriched Spaniards beyond the dreams of avarice. They impoverished Spain. Never is there more need than in times of exceptional prosperity to insist upon what the President has called a square deal.

On Dec. 23 it was anA Public nounced for the holiday Service Trust. reflection of New Yorkers that all the traction systems of Manhattan had been merged under the control of Mr. August Belmont. Mr. Thomas F. Ryan is the second party to the transaction. The result of this sale is to create a monopoly in New York by the side of which the Consolidated Gas Company is dwarfed into insignificance. The mere report of it enhanced the values of all the stocks concerned by many millions. By leases and re-leases this capitalization had gradually been increased to $147,000,000 for 535 miles of track. To reproduce the entire equipment of these companies would, competent men estimate, cost less than $90,000,000. Interest on this at five per cent. would be $4,500,000. The net earnings of the companies last year was $19,000,000; the difference, $14,500,000, represents the city's annual gift to the share

holders. It is now proposed to issue $2,000 in bonds and $900 in stock for every $1,000 of subway stock, and $1,000 in preferred stock with $500 in common stock for every $1,000 of old surface railway stock. In the official announcement issued by this new public service trust it is stated "that the transportation facilities in this city are already superior in rapidity, comfort, character of equipment and low cost of travel for long distance to those of any other city in the world." Such statements make one fairly gasp in view of the inferiority of the equipment and service, the "hustling" of patrons and the fact that more than half of every five-cent fare is profit. Through their political affiliations, not always honest or honorable, chartered monopolists have secured for little or nothing franchises which they have now capitalized at $206,000,000, a rate of more than $500 for every family in the city. In return for the people's gift, the companies they have organized have become the greatest factor in debauching the electorate and in organizing municipal corruption. What a contrast to the conditions we presented last week, as the result of municipal ownership in England.

A treaty was signed on Treaty beDec. 22 by the Japanese tween China and Japan. and Chinese plenipotentiaries. The text of the treaty is not published. Chinese officials assert that it relates solely to Manchurian affairs, others that it lays the foundations for an alliance. Minister Rockhill in a despatch to the State Department says that by this treaty China grants to Japan the release of the Liao-Tung Peninsula, which includes Port Arthur; the control of the railway leading from that city northward as far as Chang-Chin and the right to construct railways from Antung to Mukden, China, reserving the privilege to purchase the road under certain stipulated conditions at the end of a given term of years. The treaty likewise guarantees the opening to foreign trade and residence of sixteen localities in Manchuria, including the city of Harbin. Thus the original contention of our State Department for an open door in Manchuria is recognized, and America has every reason to be well content.

seems no rea

Constitutional reorganThe Situation ization of a people, large in Russia. sections of which are bent on anarchy, is the task of Count Witte, and the latest indications are that he will prove equal to it. The general strike seems failing; it was never universal; order is well maintained at St. Petersburg, and though street fighting continues at Moscow it is gradually dying out, and there son to believe that it will find general imitation, though there have been sporadic revolts in industrial cities, and in the Baltic provinces Russian authority is for the moment practically suspended. The revolution has developed no leader; the army has shown itself in the main faithful to the Tsar. And the Tsar has shown himself apparently faithful to Count Witte. He has issued a ukase defining the electoral basis of the approaching Douma or National Assembly in a way to meet the wishes of the saner Russion Liberals. The plan of suffrage adopted for the Douma follows that already in use in Germany for municipal affairs and for the Prussian State, though not for the National Assembly or Reichstag. A vote is in the cities extended to nearly all classes but the poorest and lowest. All small realty owners, shopkeepers, all "occupiers" in the English sense (which

means all who live in a separate lodging held direct from a landlord) and all "officials" in Russia, including railroad, telegraph and city employees, have a vote under the new law; but they vote by "classes." For instance, in "St. Petersburg"-including not only the city but province the peasants will send 14 representatives to the electoral college; rural landlords or "nobles," 18; city realty owners, 15, and "workmen," which includes all below the large land-holders in cities, 18. This plan, as in Germany, counterbalances the numbers of the wage-earning and lower middle class with the large proportional representation of property and income. The new law confers suffrage in this modified form on the only class at first excluded for which it could be wisely claimed. The leading Russian papers approve the scheme as prudently and conservatively liberal. Elections will be ordered and when half the National Assembly is elected, it will be convened.

France and the Vatican.

The Vatican White Book on the separation of Church and State, as summarized in cable dispatches of Dec. 27, seeks to place on successive French administrations the entire burden of the abrogation of the Concordat, alleging that the policy of the French Government has been distinctively "anti-religious," and denying that the attitude of the Church invited, much less made inevitable, any change in the old order. The document by French ministers to throw the burden goes on to suggest that the effort made the people of France do not desire separaupon the Curia is due to a conviction that tion and that they, as politicians, wish to disclaim responsibility for its probably disastrous consequences. That the Church welfare is strenuously denied. Finally, has ever acted in opposition to the public with regard to the French Protectorate in the Far East the claim is advanced that although it is founded on international treaties its continuance will depend entirely on the will of the Vatican.

American Church

News.

Bishop Funsten, of Boisé, Memorial to has had the gracious Bishop Tuttle thought to give friends in Idaho. and admirers of Bishop Tuttle and those interested in missions

throughout the country an opportunity to join in erecting a building in the city of Boisé to commemorate the great influence for good exercised by Bishop Tuttle in Idaho. Forty years ago he travelled its plains, braving the dangers of the frontier and savage, doing missionary work, in a literal sense by stages, among the miners and frontiersmen. All the vast field of his missionary bishopric was then undeveloped, but Idaho was the wildest part. When he came the only church was a little frame building in Boisé; even when he left the district to become Bishop of Missouri church buildings were few, but a sure foundation had been laid, and the remembrance of him was a strong influence for good through all Idaho. The best way to preserve the memory of this service for a coming generation is, Bishop Funsten believes, a memorial building at the State capital, and as he whom the building is to commemorate is now Presiding Bishop, it seems fitting that the contributions should

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come from every part of the country. Bishop Tuttle has expressed himself as "gratified and grateful" at the suggestion. Bishop Funsten guarantees that Idaho will contribute at least $1,000, and will welcome offerings, however small, that spring from real affection and respect. Certainly, as Bishop Tuttle himself has said, "a building to be used to help men and women, and make them better and happier, however modest, is a far nobler monument than the most costly mausoleum."

Presbyterians, Methodists and Congregationalists of Canada, through a joint committee of those bodies, have agreed to become "The United Church of Canada." A confession of faith has been adopted following the general lines of the revised American Presbyterian Confession. The government is to be through a general conference on the Methodist plan, with a president as chief officer. Below the conference there will be a council formed on the Congregational scheme, which is to have a chairman for its head, and below this there will be presbyteries with moderators. Thus something of the characteristics of each party to the union is preserved. The plan is not yet an accomplished fact, for it must be

submitted to the several Churches of Canada for approval, which is, however, confidently anticipated. There will be no final action before 1908. The official report of the conference declares that throughout the session the utmost harmony and brotherly feeling prevailed. The confession formulates doctrines common to the three Churches, and suggests arrangements for pastoral services and training of the ministry. The candidate for ordination "must believe himself a child of God, truly called to the ministry, must hold the Holy Scriptures as containing sufficiently all doctrines necessary to salvation, and be resolved to teach nothing not in conformity with them. He must believe the doctrine of the United Church, as he understands it, to be agreeable to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, his own personal faith being in essential agreement with it, and his adherence being pledged to it." The Church is described by the conference as "a visible and sacred brotherhood consisting of those who profess faith in Jesus Christ and obedience to Him, with their children." The Ten Commandments and

the words of Christ are said to reveal the law of God. Baptism, which may be by sprinkling or immersion, and the Lord's Supper, are recognized as sacraments. Significant of past controversies is the declaration that "the Church should not contain unworthy members."

rence

The Jews are essentially idealists, said Bishop Lawrence, speaking at Faneuil Hall, Boston, on the 250th anniversary of the landing of Jews in America. Men of faith, he went on to say, are men of ideals, and it is of the utmost importance that our leaders should be idealists in this age of struggle with material obstacles and increase of material wealth. This thought led him to express the hope that the great inflow of Jews to America might reinforce "that idealism which was planted here by the Puritans, who founded their faith, traditions, law and government so closely along the lines of the old dispensation." The need in the Christian Church to-day was, he said, for a deeper faith in a righteous God; for an interpretation of religion which is ethical, and for that we turn to the ancient Scriptures of Judaism,

though in the Christian faith we had a far deeper and broader foundation for character and the development of an ethical temper. In the coming of the Jews there had come to this land a great contribution to religion. "Throughout its history the character of this nation is to be based upon a faith which, deep and spiritual, is therefore ethical, and intimately connected with the affairs, business, politics and the social life of men." Especially to be emphasized was the integrity of the family, for which the Jews had always stood, a tradition of the deepest value in this day and nation.

Archdeacon In the course of a personal letter to a friend in Stuck's New York Archdeacon Journey. Stuck writes, Nov. 9, 1905: "My projected journey this winter is

a much more ambitious one than last

year's. Practically, my starting place will be at Bettles, which was my objective point last winter. I hope to spend Christmas there on the Koyukuk River. The ladies at the hospital sent a large box of Christmas things by steamboat to Bettles this summer, and arrangements have been made to gather all the natives together, for the first Christmas celebration they have ever had. I hope to leave Bettles by Jan. 1, striking west for the Kobuk River,

and following that river to its mouth in Kotzebue Sound. At the mouth of this

river is a mission of the Society of Friends, which I am very anxious to visit, being favorably impressed last year by the natives I met from that post. At Kotzebue Sound I shall turn north along the coast for Point Hope, which is my objective this winter. Returning, I shall retrace my steps as far as the mouth of the Kobuk, but shall then continue south, crossing the Seward Peninsula from Candle City to Council City-both of them considerable mining settlements-and following around Norton Sound and across Norton Bay to Unalaklik, where I shall visit the Swedish Evangelical Mission. From this place there is a portage of only eighty miles to the Yukon River, and once on the Yukon I shall of course follow that stream up to the mouth of the Tanana, and then up the Tanana home.

"The trip will take all the winter; indeed, my chief anxiety-once I am across the comparatively unknown country from Bettles to Kotzebue Sound-will be to get back before the trail breaks up. I believe that, given favorable weather conditions, the overland trip to Point Hope can be made. I have most carefully studied out the route on the map, and have reckoned and calculated, and I think it can be done. Anyway, we are going to try it. I cannot tell exactly how many miles the trip will cover, because the maps are so vague, but I judge it to be between 2,500 and 3,000 miles. And there are my friends of last year on the Koyukuk to visit, and their annual divine service to hold; there are the neglected Koyukuk natives to be given a Christmas, there are scattered natives and prospectors all along the Kobuk River, and all through the Seward Peninsula, and the working of the native missions of two other religious bodies to study, besides the pleasure of a visit to our own most northerly mission; there are all these things to occupy and interest. .

I shall have occasional opportunities of sending a letter, but none of receiving any. Nor shall I get any news. The fate of the Russian Empire, now trembling in the balance, I shall not know till next April, and if the whole United States were swallowed up in an earthquake, I would not know it till next April. The news I carry with me will be the news to every

body I meet, certainly until I reach Kotzebue Sound."

The Syrian College at Beirut.

Among the achievements of American education, all of it more or less missionary in spirit, the Protestant College at Beirut, Syria, is unique, and in some respects it is the most remarkable. Founded thirty-nine years ago by Dr. Bliss, with three rooms and ten students, its founder, though no longer its president, has lived to see it expand till it counts 736 students, representing twelve distinct Churches, among which all Protestant bodies are counted as having already achieved federation, and thirteen nationalities, all working together harmoniously; their babel reduced to a common tongue; their race prejudices laid aside; their religious animosities calmed, not so much by the inculcation of Christian doctrine as by the example of a Christian spirit. Like Robert College, the college at Beirut is incorporated under the laws of the State of New York and is independent of the missionary organization of any Church, being one of the leaders in practical federation, welcoming and finding the co-operation of all. In a preparatory department those who do not know English learn it, for in the college, in the schools of commerce, medicine, Biblical archæology and philology, English alone is used as a medium of instruction, though Arabic, Turkish, French and German are taught. There are daily prayers, Bible lessons and sermons on Sundays. Some of these exercises every student must attend, though he need take no part in them, and it is most interesting to find this worship conducted in so catholic a spirit that Greek Orthodox, Uniat, Roman Catholic, Armenian Catholic, Maronite, Armenian Orthodox, Copt, Syrian Orthodox, Moslem,

"They

Druze and Jew can all unite with Protestant Christians without offence in these services. The larger part of the students are enrolled, according to their language, in one or another of the branches of the Y. M. C. A. About seven-tenths of the cost of conducting this college is paid by the students in fees. founder's son, in talking to us, "they are not sent," said President Bliss, the come," eager to be taught and willing to pay to the extent of their ability. Every year inspectors are sent by the Sultan from Constantinople, and these have frequently expressed their hearty good-will. dilatory, but never antagonistic. The site The authorities are sometimes vexatiously of the college is magnificent, overlooking the Mediterranean and with the hills of Lebanon for a background. The buildings are numerous and spacious. They represent, with the land, an investment of probably half a million dollars, and could not be reproduced in this country for twice that sum. The only danger that threatens the college is from its remarkable sucIt is overwhelmed with students; it must have funds sufficient to maintain its standards for an increasing number; buildings, especially isolation hospitals. funds for more land, books, apparatus, The tuition of an American college student does not pay his way; it is hardly fair to expect that that of a Syrian should. This is a work of shrewd Christian states

[graphic]

cess.

manship, as well as of high philanthropy. The value of such an institution, direct and indirect, to Syria and all the surrounding country is hardly calculable. Its value for us is that it shows what Christianity might do and ought to be doing everywhere; what it will do when federation becomes a reality among the Christian Churches, transcending barriers of sect, race and language in a common zeal for the redemption of humanity.

English Church
News.

Pan-Anglican Congress of 1908.

The secretaries of the Pan-Anglican Congress Committee issued on Dec. 15 a statement regarding answers to questions submitted to all dioceses of the Anglican Communion. For the future, it said, the answers were to be based on the PanAnglican Pamphlet, published by the S. P. C. K., containing an account of the first answers received. The first set of new answers came from St. Albans. "Norwich," continues the statement, "has taken notable action in connection with its own revised answers. It has deputed two experts to prepare a memorandum on two subjects to be brought before its diocesan committee in two months' time. The diocese proposes to continue this process for twelve months, sitting six times and considering on each occasion two subjects, which have been carefully prepared beforehand by experts. A report of all that has been done in connection with the Congress is to be presented to the United Boards of Missions on Jan. 30, at the Church House; and at the next meeting of the Congress committee the question of time and place and expenses in connection with the Congress itself is to be discussed."

The Record and Mr. Birrell.

more

The Record finds no appointment in the new Liberal cabinet significant to Churchmen than that of Mr. Birrell to the Education Office. Mr. Birrell, the son of a Nonconformist minister, has, it says, since his entry into politics, shown all the violent hostility to the Church and all the zest in vehement denunciation of its clergy which mark the itinerant Liberationist lecturer. It is true that most people have never taken his political endeavors quite seriously, and that his exercises in invective have been observed with more amusement than anger. But now that he comes into office he may begin to practise in the spirit of his preaching. His choice bodes ill for the dreams of those who think that some comfortable compromise between the Church and the school of Dr. Clifford can readily be arrived at. Yet elsewhere The Record expressed its sympathy with "the desire of all devout persons" that there should be in the ensuing election "as little as possible of bitterness and malice" and it notes as especial instances of this, on the part of Nonconformists, the printing of a list of persons who refused to pay rates to support former Church schools under the title "The Bishops' Prisoners." It objects also to the Liberationist name for this tax, "The New Church Rate," language for which it says "there can be no excuse and no defence." "A cause which descends so low must," it says, "be in a very bad way."

The Church Times on the School Question.

The Church Times, on the other hand, thinks Mr. Birrell, though without practical experience, possesses many of the right qualifications for the office, and has shown he knows there are two sides to the question. "The one thing of others to be avoided at the Board of Education is a doctrinaire; and Mr. Birrell has too much humor to be that. He has the great advantage, from one point of view, of being a Dissenter by parentage and training. He has the much greater advantage of being no mere Dissenter by thought and surroundings.

If

any man can induce Dissenters to be rea-
sonable, it should be he." "Churchmer,
as he himself has said, have some
things left to 'truck' with, and therefore
the way to a solution of the education
problem lies through a strictly business
deal. Our assets are our school buildings,
and all that we have expended upon them
in relief of the rates and taxes. What
we consider as an indispensable conces-
sion is the permission to give definite re-
ligious instruction to our children in the
provided schools, at our own cost and dur-
ing school hours (Dissenters being al-
lowed free entry to Church schools in
areas where there is only a Church
school). Let that first be guaranteed, and
we are confident that other matters can
be arranged easily and effectively. We

stress that it laid on social problems and moral questions. Betting, gambling and reckless financial speculation are especially deplored; strenuous application of the law urged, and also that this should be supplemented by the individual exertions of Christians. Intemperance and class autagonism were also discussed, and there is a strongly worded paragraph on the declining birthrate. It is inspiriting to find the Australian hierarchy so quick to see the duty of the Church to lead public sentiment in these matters, and so ready to accept the social responsibilities of their office.

are glad to see that a more reasonable A New Translation of

spirit is manifesting itself in unexpected
quarters. Mr. Samuel Smith, for instance,
has publicly stated that, in view of 'the
strong religious feelings of Roman Cath-
olics and Anglicans,' some provision
should be 'made within limits to teach
what the parents of the children desire.'
This is quite different from the Clifford-
ian doctrine, and encourages a hopeful
outlook."

New Regulations for Lay

Readers.

Lay-readers are now be-
ing appointed under the
new regulations drawn
up by the archbishops
and bishops fixing the conditions of nom-
ination, examination, admittance and priv-
ilege. Four classes are recognized; pa-
rochial readers, diocesan readers, cate-
chists, evangelists. The diocesan reader is
something like the Limitour of Chaucer's
day, he may range all over the diocese.
The parochial reader can serve only his
incumbent. The catechist may, in addi-
tion to the privileges of a parochial reader,
instruct classes in consecrated buildings.
The evangelist, who must have had a reg-
ular training, has the status of a parochiai
reader and the right to expound the Gos-
pel. The general duties of lay-readers
are officially stated to be any or all of
these: "(1) To visit the sick, to read and
pray with them, to take classes in Sunday-
school and elsewhere, and generally to
give such assistance to the incumbent as
he may lawfully direct. (2) In unconse-
crated buildings used for public worship:
(a) To read such services as may be ap-
proved by the bishop; (b) to expound the
Scriptures and give addresses. (3) In
consecrated buildings when he is licensed
to officiate in them: (a) To read such por-
tions of the order of Morning or Evening
Prayer and Litany as may be specified in
his license; (b) to read selected and ap-
proved homilies or sermons; (c) to cate
chise children outside the appointed ser-
vices of the Church." His proper place is
defined to be "the reading desk, prayer
desk, litany desk or lecturn. He should
not be admitted to the pulpit." The parts
of Matins or Evensong that he may read
are specified on the license. Special modi-
fications of the regulations may be made
by any Ordinary, and the Bishop of Wor-
cester has in fact modified them. The
Record thinks them somewhat too strin-
gent, and that "care will need to be taken
lest godly men, of real spiritual capacity,
are debarred from work they have done,
and could still do, with real advantage to
the Church. There should be a place for
all such, and the more of their help the
Church enjoys the better for it."

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the "Imitation."

In this critically literary age any new revision of a standard work commands attention. Shakespearian and other variations are continually under discussion. We may be pardoned then for reviewing a new translation of the book which has been done into more languages than any save the Bible, especially since this revision by Sir Francis R. Cruise is thoroughly radical in conception and detail. It puts a new book into the hands of the Christian reading public.

Thomas Hammerken, or Hammerchen, of Kempen, was well fitted by nature and place for writing such a work. The country from Düsseldorf south up the Rhine is to this day devoutly Catholic. In the country where we find still revered the shrine of the Three Kings, where Bonn Münster honors Helena, the mother of Rhenic Christianity, where at Kreuzberg the Franciscan brothers maintain the original simplicity, there, even at the time when Chaucer was singing his songs, and Huss was setting Europe in flame, the "little, fresh colored man, with soft brown eyes," was in an atmosphere fitted to produce the "Imitation."

Curiously, the "Imitation" was originally entitled De Musica Ecclesiastica. One is tempted to wonder if the author were not transmuting into its deepest Christian meaning the Greek words in their original sense, and indicating that this book was to be the full harmony of all the Christian graces. But the old Belgian Chronique de Jean Brandon says that Thomas wrote the Qui sequitur me in metre, and Carl Hirsche has proved conclusively that the "Imitation" was written and pointed for chanting. It is a charming thought that the hours may have been told in that German monastery by the singing of these matchless sentences, as a song of the Beloved.

Sir Francis Cruise has rendered an inestimable service by making his translation, recently issued at Dublin under the auspices of the Catholic Truth Society, direct from the original manuscript. It is probably the only such English translation that we have. Elliot Stock, of London, published in 1879 a photographic facsimile of the author's autograph manuscript of 1441, now in the Burgundian Library at Brussels. The translator has closely followed this manuscript, striving to reproduce the rugged, epigrammatic style of a Kempis's Rhenish Latin. How well he has succeeded, the reader may judge by comparing, in order, the original, the current translation, and his own version of these lines of the first chapter:

"Doctrina Christi omnes doctrinas Sanctorum praecellit; et qui spiritum haberet, absconditum ibi manna inveniret.

"Sed contingit, quod multi ex frequenti

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