"THE CHRISTIAN MARTYRS."-From the Painting by Dore.

I beg you to

you to understand this, my dear friends. understand it, because this is what gives a glorious and triumphant tone to Christian experience. It is the recognition of the life of Jesus Christ as the pattern of the life into which we have to be shaped by our continued obedience to Him.-PHILLIPS BROOKS.

The Test of Christianity.

It

The final test of any religion is its inherent spiritual dynamic; the force of Christianity is the pledge of its success. It is not a school of morals, nor a system of speculation; it is an enthusiasm. This religion is Spring -Spring in the spiritual world with the irresistible charm of the quickening wind and the bursting bud. is a birth, as Jesus would say; a breath of God that makes all things new. Humanity does not need morals; it needs motives. It is sick of speculation; it longs for action. Men see their duty in every land and age with exasperating clearness. We know not how to do it.-JOHN WATSON [Ian MacLaren].

Christianity and Evolution.

The commonest thing that we hear said nowadays by young men is: What about evolution? How am I to reconcile my religion, or any religion, with the doctrine of evolution?" That upsets more men than perhaps anything else at the present hour. How would you deal with it? I would say to a man that Christianity is the further evolution. I don't know any better definition than that. It is the further evolution-the higher evo

lution. I don't start with him to attack evolution.

I

I destroy by fulfilling
He says evolution is

don't start with him to defend it. it. I take him at his own terms. that which pushes the man on from the simple to the complex--from the lower to the higher. Very well; that is what Christianity does. It pushes the man farther on. It takes him where nature has left him, and carries him on to heights which on the plan of nature he could never reach. That is evolution. 'Lead me to the Rock that

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is higher than I." That is evolution. It is the development of the whole man in the highest directions—the drawing out of his spiritual being. Show an evolutionist that, and you have taken the wind out of his sails. "I came not to destroy." Don't destroy his doctrineperhaps you can't-but fulfill it. Put a larger meaning into it.-HENRY DRUMMOND.

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An Inner Kingdom.

Christianity is a fine inoculation, a transfusion of healthy blood into an anæmic or poisoned soul. No fever can attack a perfectly sound body; no fever of unrest can disturb a soul which has breathed the air or learned the ways of Christ. Men sigh for the wings of a dove that they may fly away and be at rest. But flying away will not help us. 'The Kingdom of God is within you." We aspire to the top to look for rest; it lies at the bottom. Water rests only when it gets to the lowest place. So do men. Hence, be lowly. The man who has no opinion of himself at all can never be hurt if others do not acknowledge him. Hence, be meek. He who is without expectation can not fret if nothing comes to him.

It is self-evident that these things are so. The lowly man and the meek man are really above all other menabove all other things. They dominate the world because they do not care for it. The miser does not pos

But the meek possess it.

sess gold; gold possesses him. Said Christ: "The meek inherit the earth." They do. not buy it; they do not conquer it; but they inherit it. HENRY DRUMMOND.

The Real Strength of Christianity.

We ought to discern the real strength of Christianity and revive the ancient passion for Jesus. It is the distinction of our religion; it is the guaranty of its triumph. Faith may languish; creeds may be changed; churches may be dissolved; society may be shattered. But one

can not imagine the time when Jesus will not be the fair image of perfection, or the circumstances wherein He will not be loved. He can never be superseded; He can never be exceeded. Religions will come and go, the passing shapes of an eternal instinct; but Jesus will remain the standard of the conscience and the satisfaction of the heart, whom all men seek, in whom all men will yet meet.-JOHN WATSON [Ian MacLaren].

A Christian Creed.

No church since the early centuries has had the courge to formulate an ethical creed, for even those bodies of Christians which have no written theological creeds, yet have implicit amrmations or denials of doctrine as their basis. Imagine a body of Christians who should