working with you. I don't argue with my friends. I know how sacred their beliefs are to them, but I let little suggestions fall as I can, and I depend largely on Unitarian literature. For instance, I have opened the eyes of a number of people by your little book. I have loaned it among my nieces and nephews, and I see that a good many of my friends are gradually veering round to a brighter outlook on religious subjects. I feel that I am doing something for mankind. Let me tell you of my P. O. Mission work, for I am engaged in that, too. Miss of Brookline, who is one of the directors of our hospital, heard me say that I wanted to do something in the Post-office Mission work, and she went to the publishing house of the A. U. A. and learned that I could have a good many tracts free, and could have a few books that are published there. My heart bounds with joy when I think of the good I can do with them. 22 And I am going to be "de facto a Unitarian missionary wherever I go, that I may in slight measure show my gratitude for what my conversion has done for me. I cannot express it to anybody it is a new existence, the shadows have largely rolled away even in this life. I do not feel that I have ever really lived before. To be a Unitarian and be able to work that comprises all one needs in this life; but to be a Unitarian and a physician, and be able to work-that transcends all desires, and makes the future a glowing panorama of ever-varying opportunities to cheer, help, and touch with magic fingers the lives of all with whom one comes in contact. Now please do not say that I am too enthusiastic, and that I shall be doomed to disappointment, and that as I grow older the landscape will become more somber -people have always prophesied that to me, but it is not true. For instance, my life in dispensary practice this last summer-in one of the worst parts of the city was a perfect delight to me, because I could help people and with no thought of recompense. I have made warm friends. The poor know that I really at heart care for them; children learn to trust me--I was literally the 73 bearer of glad tidings of great joy. I never began to be as happy as I am now, and I know, since, according to Carlyle, "I have made my charge of wages a zero, that the world is under my feet." All striving souls belong to me, and my universe is growing larger all the time. With heartiest sympathy in your work, which has been of such great value to me, and whose influence extends so far, I am, most sincerely yours, A VISION. TOLD BY PROF. JAMES DRUMMOND, IN THE Sunday-School Helper (LONDON) FOR THE BENEFIT OF CERTAIN ONES WHO DO NOT One day I was in the spirit, and my soul was filled with an earnest longing to do some work which would benefit my fellow-men. While I mused, there appeared to me one with a fair countenance: there was a tender benevolence in his smile, and deep penetration in his eyes, so that he seemed to pierce through every disguise of my heart, and yet without any sting of reproach. I was strangely drawn to him; and it was curious that, just because he appeared to be so perfectly holy, I felt that I could confide to him all my weakness and sin, and grow strong in his strength. Then he said to me, "My brother, there is a class in a neighboring school that wants your care. There are six or seven children waiting to be taught that they are children of God; will you teach them ?" And I answered, "I was thinking of some great plan that will benefit multitudes of my countrymen, and not of the drudgery of teaching children." Then he replied, "He that is unfaithful in that which is least will be unfaithful in a larger service; and the pathof duty which lies before your feet is the path which you must tread." When he had spoken thus, a divine voice became clear within my soul, and told me that teaching these children was the next work for me; and I grew ashamed of my vain-glorious plans and and my blindness of heart, and said, "Teacher, I will go." And immediately I saw that the soul of a child was more than I could measure, and that to teach it worthily was beyond all my desert; and now I shrank from the task, not because it was drudgery, but because it was too great for me. So I said, "But how shall I be made fit for such a holy service ?" And he answered me, "You must love the children, and long with a great long ing to feed their souls with the bread of eternal life." Then I said, "Yes, I know that the power must be in me; but I have not this power. O my teacher, tell me where I shall get this love." And he answered and said to me, "This power is the power of God, and must be sought from God, who gives his holy spirit to those that ask him. If you claim it as your own, it must vanish. Give up all to God, and then he will dwell within you, and will speak and act through you. you. Of yourself you can do nothing.' I was humbled, and felt my exceeding weakness; and yet in the midst of this weakness there was a new sense of power and of an unseen fellowship, which made the fountains of my life gush with a hitherto unknown joy, though at the same time I had never had such painful memories of former sin and selfishness of heart. I was full of gratitude to the stranger whose wondrous tones of commanding gentleness had brought me this new consciousness, and I said to him, "Tell me, dear teacher, shall I never again grow weary in well-doing, or cease to feel the hand of God leading me?" Then said he, "Dark days must come, for only through much tribulation can men enter into the kingdom of God. But, oh! my brother, I have been wonderfully blest, and I can help you. In my faith your faith may revive; for the revelation of the Father seems to me as an open vision, and I yearn to shed this light over mankind. Come to me when you are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And I marvelled at the graciousness of these words, and I believed, for I saw his face as it had been the face of the Son of God. And I said, "Yet, my beloved teacher, tell me this one thing: will my constancy last? Will pleasure and love of ease lead me astray, or shall I have fortitude to deny myself in the day of temptation ?" And he answered, "All things are possible to him who has faith. Temptations and offenses must come; but be of good cheer; in me you will have peace, for I have overcome the world. My Father put such love into my heart that through the simple power of that love I gave up all that the world holds dear, and passed by a cross into eternal life. Thus whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." Having said these words, he vanished out of my sight. Then I knew that it was the Christ; and I bowed my head and worshipped. MONDAY. Every day has its dawn, Its soft and silent eve, Its noontide hours of bliss or bale;- Why do we heap huge mounds of years And scorn the little days that pass Each turning round a small sweet face As beautiful as near; Because it has so small a face We will not see it clear. We will not clasp it as it flies, We will not bathe our wearied souls And so it turns from us, and goes Though we would give our lives for it, Yet every day has its dawn, Its noontide and its eve: Live while we live, giving God thanks; He will not let us grieve. Dinah Muloch Craik, TUESDAY. THURSDAY. My days are as the grass, And like the flower of the field I fade; O soul, dost thou not see, The wise have likened thee To the most living creature that is made. My days are as the grass; The feet of trouble pass, And leave me trampled that I cannot rise; But wait a little while, And I shall lift and smile, Before the sweet congratulating skies. My days are as the grass; And in the bleak earth must hide my head; The wind that passes o'er Will find my place no more, The wind of death will tell that I am dead. But how shall I rejoice. When I shall hear the voice Of Him who, keeping spring with him al way, Lest hope from men should pass, Hath made us as the grass, The grass that always has another day. Carl Spencer. FRIDAY. As one who through a tree Looks unto distant sunlit hills, And cannot see This world I deem Of shadows that are not what they seem; Their beauty through the branching tra- Where visions rise, Giving dim surmise Of the things that shall meet our waking eyes. Soon the whole, Like a parched scroll, Shall before my amazed slight uproll; And without a screen At one burst, be seen The Presence wherein I have ever been. T. Whitehead. GOD.-One Being, one Person, one All-embracing Spirit, his nature, Love; himself our Father; creating and pervading the Universe, yet distinct from it; knowable so far as man is made in his image; unknowable in his infinity beyond. Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, is one Lord-Mark xii, 29. God is a Spirit-John iv, 24. To us there is but one God, the Father-I Cor., viii, 6. There is one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all, and in you all-Eph. iv, 6. JESUS CHRIST.--A Man, made in all points like other men, one with God only as it is possible for all men to be, and trained up gradually by the Divine Spirit to be the leader and embodiment of the highest religious truth and the Saviour of the world. There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus -I Tim. ii, 5. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles, wonders and signs which God did by him-Acts ii, 22. In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren-Heb. ii, 17. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one with us--John xvii, 20-21. I can of mine own self do nothing-John v, 30. The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the World-I John iv, 14. MAN. A child of God, made in his image, born in his kingdom; all parts of his nature, bodily and spiritual, good in themselves, but needing development and perfecting; often as a free agent choosing wrong and becoming sinful, yet always capable of endless, upward progress; the two sexes equal in their rights, and each needing the other's help in all spheres of action. God created man in his own image, male and female created he them-Gen. i, 27. Jesus said, Suffer little children and forbid them not, to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven-- Matt. xix, 14. God made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions-Ec. vii, 29. perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect-Matt. v, 48. Ye are all one in Christ Jesus-Gal. iii, 28. What God hath joined together let not man put asunderMatt. xix, 6. Be ye THE BIBLE.-The best record of the world's early religious growth; some imperfect, and some of everlasting truth parts of it local, temporary, fallible and and value; the whole to be read and judged with the constant use of reason, common sense and spiritual insight. the full corn in the ear-Mark iv, 28. It First the blade, then the ear, after that hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy; but I say unto you, love your enemies-Matt. v, 43-44. Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from the newness of spirit and not in the oldness heaven-John vi, 32. We should serve in of the letter-Rom. vii, 6. The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life-2 Cor., iii, 8. I speak as to wise men: judge ye what I say I Cor., x. 15. RELIGION.-An experience consisting alike of piety, benevolence and morality; loving, doing and being. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength; this is the first commandment. The second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself Mark xii, 30-31. 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-James i, 27. Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven--Matt. vii, 21. THE SPHERE OF RELIGION.-Business, politics, reform, the family, the affairs. of daily life and the saving of society, equally with the church, the world to come and the saving of the soul. The field is the world-Matt. xiii, 38. This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world-Matt. xxiv, 14. Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord-Rom. xii, 11. I came not to judge the world, but to save the world-John xii, 47. Provide things honest in the sight of all men- Rom. xii, 17. CHRISTIANITY. The method of leading men to religion, the principles of which were lived, embodied and taught by Jesus Christ. I am the way, the truth and the life-John xiv, 6. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly John x, 10. THE TRUE CHRISTIAN. Every one who has the spirit of Christ, and is seeking to live in accordance with his gospel. If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his--Rom. viii, 9. By this shall all men know ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another John xiii, 35. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me- -Matt. xxv, 40. SALVATION.-The rescue of the whole man, body and soul, heart and life, from his sins, and from his sense of alienation from God, having many methods, but available in none without personal righteousness and well doing. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins Matt. i, 21. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved-Acts xvi, 31. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven Matt. vii, 21. THE "AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION" AND THE "SWISS CROSS." Rev. Arthur Beavis, of Iowa City, Iowa, prepared for the Chicago Sundayschool Institute, a paper, since published in Unity, entitled "An Undeveloped Side of Unity Club Work.” In this paper he gives an account of the "Agassiz Association," a study organization for young people, to which we are glad to call attention. We do not believe that our churches can ever grow strong, or do their true work, on a principal diet of literary or scientific study. It is the distinctly religious side of our church work and life that most needs develop ing. And yet we recognize the value of literary and scientific clubs and classes in their place; and we think Mr. Beavis may well, in this connection, press the claims of the Agassiz Association. says: He "There is in this country at present an association for the advancement of science, intended especially for the benefit of the young, which is so admirable in its nature and organization that I am persuaded our Unity Clubs can do nothing better than to work along the same line and even under the same name. I refer to the "Agassiz Association," which now has over 900 Chapters, and which ought to be represented in every Unitarian church in the land. Of the many educational associations for independent study, this is the only one dealing exclusively with natural science, devoting itself principally to the scientific education of young people. In its method of work it endeavors to embody the spirit of that noble teacher whose name it bears, that is, the study of science by means of actual acquaintance with natural objects themselves, rather than by printed representations and descriptions of them. To give you some idea of the amount of real work which boys and girls will do in such an association, I will, if you please, refer to our own Chapter in Iowa City. It is composed of twentytwo members, ranging in age from fourteen years upward. They hold weekly meetings, which are conducted entirely by officers elected from among themselves, in accordance with regular parliamentary usage. The evening's programme is usually the reading of short, original papers on various scientific topics previously assigned, with notes concerning any unusual natural phenomena which may have come under the personal observation of members (as, for example, the discovery of some bird rarely seen in the locality, or hitherto unknown trait of some animal), and the presentation and description, if possible, of specimens from the animal, mineral and vegetable kingdoms. Occasionally the Chapter indulges in what is known as a field-meeting, which is a combination of picnic with scientific 1 |