political economy. "Savonarola was a great democrat as well as a religious prophet," says Rauschenbusch. "In his famous interview with the dying Lorenzo Di Medici he made three demands of him, as a condition for granting absolution. Of the man he demanded a living faith in God's mercy. Of the millionaire he demanded restitution of his ill-gotten wealth. Of the political usurper he demanded the restoration of the liberties of the people of Florence. It is significant that the dying sinner found it easy to assent to the first, hard to consent to the second, and impossible to concede the last." (Page 335, Rauschenbusch.) (4) Present-day building of a modern constructive theology, with less emphasis upon non-essentials, but with greater and more constructive emphasis upon the fundamentals of Christianity; with less search for causes of division, and more exhibition of fraternal harmony and unity, at least among the evangelical denominations.

This is the Master's Day! Let us not individually get out of step and tune with the great movements of the immanent Christ among men to-day. This is the Master's Day. And the lightning that lighteneth the one part under heaven is shining unto the other part under heaven. This old world of ours is rolling into light.

What of the Future of Christianity?

"And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering and to conquer."-Rev. 6: 2.

"I saw what you women would call a clothes-hamper-a large wicker basket-filled with the bodies of little dead babies which the keeper of the place told me had been gathered up in the drunken hovels of that one town that one day. A clothes-basket of babies, as sweet and as innocent and as deserving as ever were born, lying there with their little shut fists upraised where death had frozen them, clutching at love in the darkness-poor little things and calling to the Christian nation, Life!-Life-Life !"'— John G. Woolley.

OPPORTUNITY.

"This I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream:

There spread a cloud of dust along a plain.
And underneath the cloud or in it, raged

A furious battle, and men yelled, and swords

Shocked upon swords and shields. A prince's banner
Wavered, then staggered backward, hemmed by foes,
A craven hung along the battle's edge

And thought, 'Had I a sword of keener steel-
That blue blade that the king's son bears-but this
Blunt thing-!' He snapt and flung it from his hand,

And lowering, crept away and left the field,

Then came the king's son, wounded, sore bestead,
And weaponless, and saw the broken sword,

And ran and snatched it, and with battle shout

Hilt-buried in the dry and trodden sand,

Lifted afresh, he hewed his enemy down,
And saved a great cause that heroic day."

-Sill.

Our great business with Christianity is to proceed upon it.'

-Chalmers.

"When you walk toward the sun all your shadows are behind you.

-Anon.

VIII

"WHAT OF THE FUTURE OF CHRIS

TIANITY?”

Now a birdseye view of the ground we have traversed, with a look into the future. We are neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but certain signs are blazing in the sky which the wayfaring man, though a fool, may read. Will Christianity be superseded as a religion? It is but one step in an evolution of religions? Is it but a little system that will have its day and cease to be, or has it within itself the elements of finality? Is Christianity one of many, or is it the religion? Admitting it will change, will it be so modified as to be abandoned for something else, like a derelict at sea, or a locomotive on the junk-heap? Or will its rich and unfolding essence satisfy the ages, while ever fresh interpretations and applications of its eternal truth are brought out? What forms, inner and outer, is it destined to assume? We

should need far more knowledge than our present limitations permit, to answer some of these interrogations, but the general outlook is not difficult to discern. Let us make a survey of some of our backgrounds and foregrounds, of the retrospects and prospects.

I. THE COMPETITORS OF CHRISTIANITY are partly within and partly without, some facing it abroad and some facing it at home. They are both an opportunity and a problem, at once a stimulus and a peril. Sweeping the eye over the nations, one perceives hoary old world-religions with millions of adherents. Religion always has been and always will be the chief concern of life; for eternal interests outweigh the temporal, and, though the souls of men find the temporal object loved with greater ardor in pursuit than possession, they discover that the eternal object, however high a value they may set upon it in pursuit, is even more soulsatisfying in possession. Hence it is inevitable that Christianity and the world-religions should come into competition in their endeavor to satisfy the deepest longings of the human heart. There was a moment in history when Christianity was dead, as Christ's disciples beheld the crucifixion of its Founder; but on the third day the risen Lord became the Conquering Power of the new and final