moods. And so, while ministers are afraid to declare their beliefs lest their hearers should take them at their word and accept their views and help to proclaim them, and the churches are looking for a growth of the devotional spirit from a widespread distaste for nearly all the forms of devotion, religious indifference grows apace, the weekly services of the church are sparsely attended, and the number of those who worship God by annual subscription, and in no other way, is steadily on the increase. framed on the understanding that public of the Guild of the Good Shepherd worship should be inclusive and congre- meets all these needs. It was neatly gational is discarded for a form of service printed and widely distributed throughin which the worshippers are spectators out my parish. The attention of the of a ceremony, and their devotion, if it young was especially called to it. They is to find any expression at all, must were asked to read it, reflect upon its flow through the necessarily narrow and objects and its obligations, and then at not unfrequently thin religious experi- a fixed date the guild would be inauence of one man, and he a man of gurated. The Manual awakened very considerable interest, and many who had long wanted some such statement of faith and form of religious culture heartily fell in with the new movement. One Sunday evening, of which due notice had been given, the service was continued as usual until the time for the sermon was reached, when in the presence of the congregation forty-two persons joined the guild and took communion together. It was no light attachment or love of singularity and publicity which led these young men and women to join their elders and openly consecrate themselves to an unequivocal Christianity. They did not then, and do not now, profess to be better than others, but they took solemn obligations upon themselves which they were old enough to understand, and which made attachment to a Christibn church a closer and more serious thing than it had been before. The service was an act of consecration which will live in their memories and in their lives. The Guild of the Good Shepherd appeals at once and directly to the religious natures of its members. It takes some things for granted, and among them these: that the people who frequent churches have religious needs which they think the churches can supply, a desire for definite religious knowledge which they can apprehend themselves and disclose to others, a love of God and of Christ, of the Scriptures and worship, which they would fain strengthen, and a willingness to fellowship with like-minded persons, who are satisfied that loyal discipleship to the Man of Nazareth, inwardly felt and frankly avowed, is the highest form of religion. This admitted, what steps can be taken to form an organization for all these purposes? My own experience in Springfield has been as follows: It occurred to me that three things were needed to compass the object I had in view (1) A form of prayer for daily use in the home; (2) An explicit summary of views held by those who call themselves Unitarian Christians, and who do not hesitate to avow their alle giance to Christianity; (3) A ritual for regular use at weekly or fortnightly meetings of the Guild. The Manual The movement has made, and continues to make, steady progress, and is telling upon the life of the church. Our meetings are held fortnightly, and are conducted in the following order: A hymn, scripture reading, prayer, initiation of new members, the reading of select passages of ethical and religious writings drawn from scriptural and nonscriptural sources which the members choose for themselves, the consideration of cases of deserving need in the parish and the appointment of visitors and helpers, the carrying out of any other parish work in which the young people may help the minister, hymn and benediction. The services are earnest and helpful, and so far there is only one opinion about them. It ought to be said that the Guild Manual is a modification of one used by the Rev. Carey W. Walters, of London, the Provost of ON BUSINESS ENTERPRISE IN REthe English Unitarian Guilds. LIGION. BY BROOKE HERFORD. (A PAPER READ BEFORE THE UNITARIAN CLUB, BOSTON.) I have always counted it one of the blessings of my life that I was brought up to business. I only had four years of it, as office-boy and clerk. I never went far enough in business to get to its emoluments, but I went far enough to get something of its drill and discipline. I was in it long enough to learn a great respect for business ways, and especially for business enterprise. My object in forming this Guild was personal and local. Before me were young people who rightly looked to their minister for definite religious instruction, and to the church for influarces calculated to confirm their desires and attachments. Should I leave them to their own unaided judgment as to what they ought to believe? Again and again they had confessed to me in private the disadvantage at which they were placed by the uncertainty of their views. No: I would draft a creed for In one way this introduction to busithem which in place of anything better ness life and ways has made me very might afford them anchorage. For the sympathetic, but in another I am afraid present, at any rate, it would be better it has made me very critical. It has than nothing, and, perhaps, in the fu- given me an interest in all this busy ture, some other minister with clearer city life, an appreciation of its sturdy vision and profounder knowledge might activity, a sympathy for its difficulties, render them a like service, and reveal to that I, else, could hardly have felt. But them in fairer and fuller proportions the at the same time it makes me constantly Kingdom of God and of Christ. Be dissatisfied with the unbusiness-like this as it may, my duty was clear, and I slackness with which much of our relighave yet to regret that I did it. The ious work is carried on. I cannot help organization has met a local want, and comparing the way in which men carry the proof of its value lies in its useful- on their business, with the way in which ness. An ounce of experience in a mat- the same people carry on their churches; ter of this kind is worth a pound of the enterprise which they put into trade, theory and conjecture. with the slack and feeble hold they take of religion. Brethren, have more faith in the religious capacity of your parishoners and in the vital power of Christianity. The fear of being committed to anything in theology, the dread of ecclesiasticism, the laissez faire policy of leaving the young unaided and undirected in the most vital of all earthly concerns, is paralyzing the power of our churches and hindering their prosperity. The crystallizing of religious belief, which so many dread, is less of an evil than the reduction of religious conviction to the merest intellectual pulp and nebula, and it is surely better to err on the side of ecclesiastical zeal than to fall into worldliness and indifference. "A new year, J. C. A new, unsullied year is ours. There are many applications of this subject. For one thing it applies to the interest men take in religion itself, in its great convictions and thought, apart from their embodiment in religious institutions. I think I speak the feeling of all ministers, when I say that what we long for most of all, is, to have the men among our people stand with us a little more definitely and heartily in this great interest of religion. We do not want fewer of the women, but we want more of the men! I do not mean that men are entirely indifferent on the subject. But still to see the contrast! How many, who, in all the doings of the world, have so keen an appreciation of firmness and thoroughness, are in these higher elements of life so often hesitating and half-hearted. People who in business take care to see clearly what they are at, and who strike straight for the mark and make a clean stroke every time-how often do you find them not only in the most misty and undecided state about religion, but content to remain so, shrinking from taking any decided step on the Christian side, and in fact, dealing with all that higher side of life with a feeble hesitation, which if any man showed to them in business they would cross him right out of their books. We are all familiar with this as it shows itself in our orthodox friends. Here is your neighbor, for instance, a shrewd practical man, who from Monday morning till Saturday night goes right to the point, and won't touch a business matter that he does not squarely believe in. But Sunday comes and all this is changed. He goes to some church where the whole scheme of divine and eternal things is laid down as ́rigidly as if they had a township plat of them. Does he really take in all those old doctrines of total depravity, and an angry God, a ruined world and a yawning hell? Does he believe the Bible to be absolutely divine all through Solomon's song and David's curses and all? Nothing of the kind. When you get into a quiet talk with him at his office or going down in the horse car, he will frankly tell you that there is a great deal that he no more believes than you do, and in fact you find that he thinks very much as you think. And yetsuppose you press him to come right -out, and stand squarely with you for these more reasonable beliefs,--why, he draws in directly! "Ah, well," he says, "it is a difficult subject- there are some things that he does not see clearly; he doesn't know that he is quite prepared to commit himself," and you know very well that he never will be. But it is not only our orthodox friends to whom this applies, else there would be little appropriateness in my speaking of it here. But while they are hesitating in avowing what they do not believe, what we want, is, a little clearer grasp of what we do believe, and a little more enterprise in working for it. With too many on the liberal side, liberalism is only a sort of vague impression; and when it is only this, it is very apt to drift into a vague impression that everything is uncertain, and that there is not anything sure enough to believe in or work for very earnestly. But that is not so really. The main lines of religious truth are not doubtful. God, duty, immortality, and Christ as the greatest teacher of these great verities, these are not really doubtful. These things have been questioned, and investigated in the present day as never before, and they have stood the test, and those who watch the drift of the higher thought of science and philosophy know that these things stand to-day, realities and certainties, more than ever before. There wants a clearer hold of these things; with many there wants enough of thought and study of them to have a chance of getting a clear hold; we want a firmer, more open standing for them, a franker stepping forward in the line in which these things ask our worship and work. That is where we ministers feel the pinch. We have in our churches many of the strongest, truest-hearted business men of the community. They are the men, who, if they join a corporation, send its shares right up. They are the men, who, if they take hold in an institution, mean to make it go, and do make it go. They are the men, who, if they belong to a party, can quietly join hands with other strong men of the same sort, and put right through whatever they make up their minds about. They go quietly to them, and say, "See, here; we must do this thing and they do it! I believe we have a larger proportion of this sort of men in our churches, than there are in almost any others. Why if they would stand with us for religion, as they do in business and public life and other things out in the world, there is nothing we could not do. But there is where the trouble comes in. Of these very same men, there are so few who will stand squarely with us on the religious side of our work and take hold with us as if they really meant it! I fancy some may be inclined to say that I ought not to be hard on such people as I have been speaking of, because, though they may hold back from standing openly with us on the religious side of our work, they are ready to stand with us and do their part for our churches and our church-work as institutions. But I am afraid that plea will hardly bear looking into! Why, it is exactly because our men so largely hold off from standing squarely for our religious work, that our churches are what they are to-day, and do what they do! Handsome churches? Yes! Luxurious? Yes! But what do they do in the midst of these great cities and dense populations? What do they do, in the presence of these grave problems which are rising into even more pressing prominence in the separation of classes, and the growth of pauperism and crime? I suppose my own church is a fair sample. We are open regularly once a Sunday for worship-twice, just now; and, during the week two or three sets of ladies meet to find sewing for a number of poor women, and garments for little children, and to help in the sorest need of poor homes, and, one of the very best things, to send the literature of our common-sense religion to people all over the country, who will take the trouble to write to our postoffice mission for it. Many churches you will find, doing about this same sort of thing, and also having parties, and sociables, and theatricals, and all kinds of good times, and in many of them the ladies find a considerable part of the expenses of running the church by the profit of such things. Think of it! Churches of Jesus Christ descending to be the caterers for social amusement-going in for amateur dramatics and turning an honest penny by oyster suppers and strawberry festivals! And then, God forgive us, this is called "Church activity!" Why, in presence of the sin and evil and superstition that are still on every side around us, it were truer to call it baby play! We sing "Onward Christian soldiers, things which most men dislike as much as I do. But then would it ever have been so, if you men had taken hold of the church like business men, who believe in the thing and mean to make it go? No! You pay your pew-tax and then expect to have done with it; and if the women ask you for more, you begin to say, "Come, this thing is getting too expensive!" and so the women have first to devise the ways of doing such little Christian works as they can do, and then have to devise the means of paying for them! Do I blame them that our churches are what they are ? Not I! My wonder is that the churches are still so good. For they are good. Take them with all their imperfections, the churches are still the noblest institutions in society to-day! They do represent Christ, partially at least. They represent him in his " going about doing good;"-they represent him in his drawing the little children to him; they represent him in many of the details of his ministry. But they want also to represent him in the great, strong purpose of his life, the proclaiming the true religion to mankind, and helping by it to change the world into the Kingdom of God. Our churches might do this. They have all the vantage ground for doing it. It is only man-power that they want. ready in any dozen of our chief New England cities, our Unitarian churches include the body of strongest, staunchest men in all the city. But, in what church do these strong men ever assemble together to consider squarely how can we make our church do better the real work of a church of Christ in the world? It simply never seems to occur to them to look at it that way. They go on, year after year, much in the old way. They beautify the church, or get a new organ, or have a course of lectures, or anything that the minister likes to push. But if the church is pretty well filled, and paying its way, they do not see why he wants to fuss about anything more, and Al Would it not be truer to call it mark- wish that he would be contented with ing time and goose-step? And why is this? Is it your fault, you ask; and perhaps you feel it a little hard to be reproached for a state of having things go comfortably and well. Ah! but a Church of Jesus Christ is good for more than this? (To be Concluded in our next Number'. In siveness of his language, or the extraordinary earnestness of his manner, or all these together, that rivet the attention of the hearer, it is hard to tell. the impression produced by a sermon much is due to delivery, and Mr. Brooke has a unique kind of oratory which defies all attempt to describe it. His eloquence has no pyrotechnics, but consists in the earnest enunciation of pregnant truths, in the impassioned enforcement of sentiments that quicken the intellect and touch the heart. He seems to preach, not with deliberate effort, but because, like the prophet, he has word in the heart as a burning fire shut up in his bones, so that he is weary of forbearing and cannot stay." As he gradually warms with his subject till it has engrossed his whole heart and soul, all your faculties are on the alert, and you are impatient of a cough that shall cause you to lose one of his glowing periods. At one moment you are roused to enthusiasm by some noble thought couched in noble language; at another you are melted to tenderness by some masterpiece of pathos; again you are fascinated by a glowing portraiture of some prophet or apostle of righteousness; and then you are wondering whether that indignant denouncer of the sensualist or the hypocrite, whose sarcasm is so scathing, can be the same man who, a few moments before, insisted that God would never rest until the entire human race should have found rest in Christ. When the discourse has closed, you feel yourself flooded and surcharged with spiritual life. Above all, you find yourself loathing and abhorring all selfishness and meanness, and resolved, God helping you, to trample all your spiritual foes under your feet. REV. STOPFORD A. BROOKE, M. A. In his last book, "Men, Places and Things," which has just reached the public, Prof. Wm. Matthews, LL. D., gives the following sketch of Rev. Stop ford Brooke, of London, and his work: At the southwest corner of Oxford and Bloomsbury streets, almost on the edge of St. Giles, stands a freshly painted chapel, destitute without and within of architectural beauty, which one would take to be a Methodist or other non-conformist place of worship, —which last it indeed is, but not of any recognized dissenting "denomination." It is here that Rev. Stopford A. Brooke, M. A., one of the most eminent preachers in London, has been listened to with unflagging interest for the last eleven years by a select and aristocratic, if not a very large, congregation. Of all the preachers whom we heard in London during the winter of 1882-3, and again in the autumn of 1886, he, with Canons Liddon and Farrar, best stood the test of frequent hearings. As he stands in his Geneva gown (for which he exchanged the surplice before going into the pulpit) and announces his text, you feel that here is a man who must do honor to his calling, who is thoroughly in earnest, who has pondered all the great theological problems of the day, and attained to his present beliefs, not through heredity, but through many and perhaps fierce mental struggles. You feel, too, that he is one who has the courage of his convictions and will not hesitate to speak his deepest and boldest thought, whatever may be its reception. There are few preachers in England who have a more commanding presence, a greater degree of blended dignity and attractiveness or of personal magnetism than Mr. Brooke; few with so massive a head, eyes so earnest, and an expression so benignant and winning. To analyze the effects Mr. Brooke produces, and explain their causes, is not an easy task. Whether it is the force and originality of his thoughts, the nobleness and spirituality of his sentiments, the intensity of his convictions, the aptness, vividness and inci Mr. Brooke is not a preacher for the masses of men. He would be as much out of place in Mr. Spurgeon's pulpit, even were his convictions the same as those of the Tabernacle preacher, as Mr. Spurgeon would be in his; but his sermons are admirably adapted to the peculiar, thoughtful class to which he ministers, among whom, in the gallery, modestly sits the celebrated Dr. James |