*

From what has been already said the reader will have seen that the Religious Magazine was conceived in a liberal spirit and dedicated to the service of a sensible ideal. In the "Summary" of the first number the editors had given this fair warning to the Scribes and Pharisees of the time: "We do not intend that the Magazine shall be exclusively religious. It is intended for a Christian family, and anything may properly find a place in it, which may be interesting or useful at the Christian fireside. We consider however that giving pleasure is producing useful effects; and consequently we should not certainly reject an article, which would really interest a religious family, because it did not directly teach a moral or religious lesson."

*

Under this flag, for awhile, the magazine sailed unmolested. But at last an attack from some self-constituted patrol of the high seas was begun. And this was the order and movement of battle:

"To the Editors of the Religious Magazine: "GENTLEMEN-I subscribed for your Magazine more than a year since, with the expectation that I should find it what it purported to be, a religious work, one cal culated to be read in the family on the Sabbath, with pleasure and profit. I have however been pained to find that a great many articles have been inserted in the different numbers, that have no more connection with religion, than they have with commerce or politics. Having given away the numbers of the first year, I cannot now refer to particular pieces in them. I however remember A College Scrape,' and 'Stories of a Revolutionary Officer.' I last Sabbath took up the December number, and was disappointed at finding so little that my conscience would let me consider as adapted to the day and its sacred duties. The article on the Andover Institution is interesting, and very well in its place, but

And so on. The reader will understand the nature of the whole from the quality of this part, and recognize in the writer of this communication the grandfather or other ancestor of some members of the Fault-Finding Family of to-day. By this formidable criticism, however, the author of "The Young Christian" was by no means disturbed in his editorial seat. "It was never our intention," he says, "to make an exclusively religious magazine:

"A magazine is not a series of tracts nor a monthly preacher. It belongs to a different department of literature altogether, wider in its range, more popular and business-like in its style, and taking hold far more freely and familiarly of the ordinary pursuits of men. Our correspondents have sometimes, not considering this, sent us what are apparently extracts from sermons, but they are out of place. We want articles written expressly for the pages of a magazine, in the style and manner appropriate. And then, if they are calculated to do good, they cannot be out of place. In this number, in an article on War, which we hope our readers will send around to all their neighbors, we even touch a little upon politics!"

In sending my fraternal greeting to the new magazine at Springfield, I can wish for it no higher excellence than that it embody, with "modern improvements" the guiding principles of this old magazine of Boston, which, I think, may be laid down as follows: 1. To expound Christianity as a life. 2. To avoid controversy upon the nonessentials of the Christian system.

3. To welcome the aid of all who have it to offer upon these terms.

4. To apply religious truths in secular directions, and to treat secular subjects in a religious light.

5. To be governed in the preparation of Sabbath reading by the fact that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Edward Abbott.

THE LAW-CURE FOR DRUNKENNESS.

IT is sometimes said that those who resort to legislation for the suppression of intemperance must needs abandon the ground of moral influence. That is not necessarily true. There is no reason why both methods-the legal and the moral-should not be employed simultaneously. Legislation of some sort with respect to the traffic in intoxicating liquors is necessary; all Christian communities undertake some legal supervision of the business. And there is no reason why the people who help to make and enforce these laws should abandon all efforts to reclaim drunkards by the use of moral instrumentalities.

Yet it is true that one may put such stress upon the legal methods as practically to neglect the moral agencies; and it is equally true that when the emphasis of the effort to suppress drunkenness is put upon legislation rather than upon per sonal influence a great mistake is made. Legislation is weak and ineffectual when compared with moral influence; legislation is a secondary and subordinate reliance; the main trust ought to be in the moral forces. That is just where the people who have been prominent in temperance movement; for the past twenty-five years have not put their main trust. Those who wish to be known as the active temperance workers of this generation have given five times as much thought and effort to legal measures for the suppression of intemperance as they have given to moral measures. To this enormous disproportion the increase of drunkenness is largely due.

If we ever expect to gain any signal victories in the warfare with intemperance we must arm ourselves with the only weapons that are mighty through God to the pulling down of its strongholds. Where are its strongholds? They are in the depraved moral natures and the diseased appetites of men,-in a region that laws never can reach and subdue. What are the weapons by which these strongholds may be taken? They are the weapons of truth and love.

Truth first. The truth about the bad effects of intoxicants upon their bodies and their souls needs to be told men, kindly but cogently, over and over again. It has been told ten thousand times of course; but that is no reason why we should stop telling it. The method of iteration is the reformer's uniform reliance. By "line upon line, precept upon precept," he will get the truth fastened in the minds of a few, and thus a found

ation is laid for the reformation of those who receive it.

But love is better than truth. Personal kindness to the intemperate is the main reliance. Many persons are miserable because they drink; many drink because they are miserable. Hard toil all day; a cheerless home or no home at all at night; no relief or recreation; no opportunity of social enjoyment; no cheering prospects; no elevating friendships-such is the portion of many of those whom, as Christ said, we have always with us. And if such as these choose to forget their loneliness and misery now and then in the exhilaration of strong drink it is not so much a matter of wonder. The expedient is a foolish one, but it is easy to see why many people resort to it.

Now the whole business of saving these people from ruin is not done when you have "shut up the grog shops." Shutting up the grog shops will not make them happy or hopeful; what they want most is not so much the shutting up of the old ways in which they have sought relief as the opening of new and safer ones. A little personal kindness, a little effort to improve the conditions of their life, a little care to provide them with diversions that are wholesome and elevating will do them more good than much legislation about liquor selling. This is work that costs-not money, but what most men are less willing to give than money--time and patience and loving vigilance and careful thought. It does not cost much to make a speech in a temperance meeting, or to pass an evening in a bright room wearing a pretty regalia round your neck and singing pleasant songs, or to go to the polls and cast your vote for the prohibitory candidate; but to seek out the homes of the wretched and to contrive ways of making them happier,-this does cost something. And yet nothing is plainer than that Christ, if he were on the earth, would be working in this way.

We have been witnessing now for a year or two some wonderful illustrations of the effectiveness of this kind of reform. In Michigan, in Ohio, in Indiana, in Pennsylvania, in New York, and throughout New England, the success which has been achieved by the use of purely moral measures puts to shame the results accomplished by legal and forceful measures. Reynolds and Murphy with their coadjutors have done in one year more to suppress intemperance and crime, more to shut up the drinking places, than has been

done by law in ten years. The most stringent laws often fail to reduce very materially the sale of liquors. But it is the simple fact that in many neighborhoods where these men have been at work the saloons by scores have been closed for the want of patronage. And when we read, as we have read in recent newspaper statements, that from all parts of the state of Michigan the officers of the law report a marked diminution in the police business; that one of the circuit judges has declared that the continuance of the "redribbon" movement would result in so reducing the criminal trials that two more counties might easily be added to his district; and that in view of this very fact of the lessening of crime in the state a resolution of thanks to Dr. Reynolds passed both houses of the last Michigan legislature by a nearly unanimous vote, we have a clear showing of what can be done by moral agencies toward the suppression of intemperance and the evils which do either accompany or flow therefrom.

ON A CERTAIN HAUTEUR IN CHRISTIANS. MR. LOWELL's delightful essay "On a Certain Condescension in Foreigners," will be suggested by our title, and the paternity of the phrase is confessed without shame. The trait in foreigners of which the author of the Biglow Papers' writes so good humoredly is not, however, very near of kin to that peculiarity of some Christians to which we refer. Condescension, whether gracious or ungracious-whether proceeding from a calm sense of superiority or from a lofty sense of duty-is a virtue which these good Christians, on certain occasions, religiously suppress. They have learned how to preserve, in their intercourse with some of their neighbors, a most perpendicular stiffness and a most inflexible sternness.

The peculiarity of conduct of which we speak is not always observable in these Christians. It is only in their intercourse with certain persons that you notice it. Toward the great majority of their fellow men they are gracious enough, but there is one class among them whom they always feel bound to treat with great severity.

The phenomenon to which we refer will be made visible by an example. Two ministers, whom we will call Sweet and Strong, are crossing one of the Jersey ferries together of a Monday morning. They do not belong to the same denomination. Strong is a Hittite, let us say, and Sweet is a Hivite, but they are neighbors and friends. Strong is a sincere and straightforward gentleman, and he greets the people whom he knows pleasantly enough, but Sweet is a delightfully affable man; he seems to know half the people he meets, and he has a most engaging way of noticing everybody, and making everybody feel that he is the very soul of benignity and good fellowship. Upon this happy faculty

"What

of Sweet, Strong looks with admiration. a well spoken fellow he is!" Strong says to himself. "No wonder the Hivites are always swarming if their ministers are all like him!"

Presently they enter a street car together and are seated, when a sudden and alarming change passes upon the countenance of the affable man. Strong looks up in wonder and finds Sweet directing the stiffest and most peremptory of nods toward a passenger opposite. It is evident that this vis-a-vis, whoever he is, has suddenly extracted from Sweet all the kindliness that was in him. "Talk about three-minute freezers!" says Strong to himself; "here is a man that has frozen another man stiff in less than three seconds!" Yet the stranger does not look like a bad man. His face is a kindly one; his eyes are full of good humor, and he has the air of a clergyman. After a little Strong ventures behind his newspaper, to inquire of his friend: "Who is that gentleman opposite?" "That's Jones," answers Sweet in a hoarse whisper. "Jones of St. Bunyan's church?" persists Strong. "Yes," replies Sweet, and the reason of the mysterious iciness gradually dawns upon the ingenuous mind of Strong. For Jones is a Hivite minister who has ventured to differ upon a question of church order with the majority of the Hivites. He is admitted by all to be an earnest and godly man; he agrees with his brethren in nineteen points out of twenty, and the twentieth point seems to outsiders rather a minute one; yet because of his disagreement with them in this small matter the great majority of them are unable to treat him with decent courtesy. Whenever he steps into any company of them the conversation is hushed, and a sudden chill is felt in the room. Men who have always known him cast sidelong glances at him, and speak to him, if they address him at all, with ceremonious coolness.

This is the reason why Sweet treats Jones, whom he once knew very well, with such marked hauteur. And as Strong ponders the unlovely spectacle, he thinks of all the people whom Sweet has met this morning, and contrasts his treatment of them with his treatment of his brother Jones. There was Keene, the broker, who has just been engineering a corner in Northwestern-a most rascally operation. Sweet was very friendly to him, and Keene is a Hivite, too. There was Briggs, the fancy goods dealer who has failed five times within five years, and kept his carriage and a man servant and two maid servants all the while,-Sweet fairly beamed upon him. And the bewildered Strong is forced to confess to himself that a man whose heart goes out with such warmth toward dishonest and disreputable fellows like Keene and Briggs, yet who has nothing but sternness and severity for an upright and faithful brother in the ministry who ventures to differ with him on a small matter of church order,

We know that this story is true, for we had it from the lips of Strong himself. Moreover, we have seen the same phenomenon ourselves in other Christians besides Sweet, and in other denominations besides the Hivites. And the question may well be asked of these Christians whether in thus making a difference of religious opinion a fault to be punished by the withdrawal of friendship, and in treating their brethren of the same communion who honestly disagree with them about certain matters of doctrine or polity with far greater severity than they treat notorious malefactors, they are not falling into the error of those who tithed garden herbs and neglected weightier matters.

Now that the nineteenth century of Christianity is almost gone, is it not reasonable to expect some abatement of the odium theologicum, and some recognition of the fact that honest difference of religious opinion need not give rise to suspicion and unfriendliness?

THE QUAKER POET.

ONE of the notable events of the month has been the celebration of the seventieth birthday of the poet Whittier. The tributes in the December number of the Literary World were indications of the high regard in which Mr. Whittier is held by his contemporaries; and the banquet in Boston given in his honor to the contributors of the Atlantic Monthly brought together a distinguished company.

American literature is fortunate in counting among its chief poets in this generation such men as Longfellow and Whittier and Bryant and Lowell-men of unstained and exemplary character, who by their virtues as well as by their genius have won the honor and love of their countrymen. It is no light obligation that we owe to them for having established so close a relation in our thought between the noble art of poetry and the nobler aims of morality. The charm of genius has never been thrown by any of them around vice or lawlessness; they have drawn us by their songs into no ways that do not lead upward. When we remember the kind of influence that poets have sometimes exerted upon the morality of their period, we must feel that in this we have something to be thankful for.

Of all our poets, not one has gained so strong a hold as Whittier upon the affections of his countrymen. This is partly due to the rare simplicity and nobility of his character. He is a man of whom all who know him speak in the heartiest praise. His neighbors of Amesbury and Salisbury joined on his birthday in a loving message in which they say of him: "The warm interest you have taken in every good work, the

affection for all have made you dear to us; and the genial humor of your conversation has been to our hearts the oil of gladness. The beauty of a life pure and true, a life consecrated to high and holy aims, has been to us a continual inspiration to better things." Happy is the man whose neighbors can truly say all this about him! And happy is the people whose songs are made by singers of pure and blameless lives!

The life of the man does, indeed, give shape and quality to all his work. His poetry reflects his character. He has a quick perception of beauty in nature, and some of his descriptions, notably those of "Snow Bound," are exquisite in their perfection. But it is the broad and deep humanity of his verse that has clothed it with power. The quiet joys of home, the grace of childhood, the passion for liberty, the love of country, the righteous resentment against cruelty and injustice

"the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn, The love of love-"

all these have found voices in his lyrics that will never die. The measure is sometimes rugged, and the phrase homely, but the thought goes home to the hearts of men. The common people hear him gladly. They know what he means, for he interprets to them their own best thoughts.

It is not only when he touches the common things of this life that his words have power; his poems of religion are among the noblest in the language. Devout minds in the generations to come will more and more find use for such hymns of trust and hope as "The Clear Vision," "The Answer," "The Eternal Goodness," "Our Master," "Thy Psalm," and "Thy Will be Done." In such peaceful channels the current of his song often flows, through these his riper years, reflecting in its quiet depths the beauty of the skies.

PROVINCIALISM.

THE tributes paid by the newspapers and by good men in all parts of the country to the character and influence of Mr. Samuel Bowles since he has been prostrated by his late alarming illness show, among other things, that the good and influential work is not all done in the big cities. There are very few newspapers in any city that have been more widely quoted than the Springfield Republican, or that have had more to do in forming public opinion in this country. The metropolitan contempt for provincial journalism is sensibly abated when the name of Mr. Bowles's newspaper is mentioned. Of course a daily paper in a small city must be somewhat limited in its circulation; its local constituency is not large, and it has not the facilities of communication with the rest of the world possessed by the met

ropolitan journals; but its influence may be large though its circulation is comparatively small.

SUNDAY AFTERNOON has not failed to lay to heart the lesson taught by the success of its neighbor. We hope that our magazine will hold the same rank among the monthlies that the Rpublican has held among the dailies; and if it shall, what can hinder us from getting not only the good name that the Republican has got, but the larger audience that the Republican, in the nature of things, cannot hope to get? The circulation of a daily journal cannot be very large beyond its own immediate neighborhood, but the case is entirely different with a monthly; the public can be supplied with a monthly as promptly and as cheaply if it is published in Springfield as if it is published in New York. And the embarrassment of riches under which our pigeon-holes already groan, being burdened, proves that the accident of place is no obstacle in the way of obtaining good literary work from the best people in all sections of the country. Our writers come from the East and from the West and from the South; and there is no reason why our readers should not be found in all these quarters. If the tone of the magazine were provincial its constituency would undoubtedly be provincial; but the questions with which it deals are not local questions, and the interests which it seeks to promote are not local interests. We trust that it will be found tolerably free from sectionalism as well as from sectarianism; and that it will prove itself both catholic and cosmopolitan in its ideas and in its work. A good daily newspaper must needs be more or less provincial, for its function is to give the news of its neighborhood; but good literature is not provincial, neither is good relig ion, and the magazine that is devoted to them may have an unlimited field.

We should be glad, of course, of a large local audience; but the whole boundless continent belongs to us as much as to anybody, and we mean to take possession of our share of it.

WHILE the artist is painting in his background the premature critic is sometimes heard to complain of the somberness of the picture. Those who have adopted this method in judging of Mr. Habberton's story, will probably get a little light on its meaning in the current installment. The problem of Walter Brown's experience could never have been worked out without the use of the

materials that were made ready in the first chapter. The motive of the writer in putting Brown into such an environment will now be under

stood.

ARTICLES that give evidence, in the dinginess of the paper on which they are written and in their generally disheveled and discouraged look,

that they have been the rounds of the other magazines, are not nearly so sure of a sympathetic reading hereabouts as those that indicate a more recent origin and a fresher treatment.

THE Lutheran church in this country is split into several belligerent factions, the warfare between which has been about as sharp as any

that sectarianism has produced in America. But during the last month a Diet was held in Philadelphia of representatives from nearly all the sections of the church; and though the discussions covered most of the points of controversy among Lutherans, the papers read were so judicious and conciliatory in their tone, and the debates were conducted with such fairness and courtesy that a

great advance was made in the direction of

reconciliation and reunion. As the Lutheran Observer says:

"The many points upon which all parties in the Church agree, and the few upon which they disagree, were so strikingly brought out in the papers read and the discussions which followed, that the margin of difference became exceedingly narrow for Christian men to stand upon and justify, before God and man, the division of our Church into separate bodies."

Most of the points that separate not only the different wings of the sects, but the sects themselves, are of this character; and a frank and respectful conference about these differences would often serve to establish fraternal relations between parties that are in bitter strife. The great majority of those who are engaged in religious controversy do not know the opinions of those against whom they are contending. The leaders in these sectarian conflicts always misrepresent the opinions of their opponents; the rank and file are always fighting on false issues. A full explanation of the exact. difference between the contending parties,-of the beliefs and purposes and aims of each,-would put a speedy end to many divisions in the church. And we trust that the Lutheran Diet will be only the first of many similar attempts on the part of divided believers to come to a fair understanding.

AT the dedication of Dr. Allon's new Congregational church in London the other day several interesting things happened. Mr. Gladstone attended the morning service, (at which Dr. Dale was the preacher) and at its close was shown over the building. This is only significant as a slight indication of the cordial feeling of the English Liberal leader toward the Nonconformists. The connection of the Liberals and the Nonconformists is likely to become still more intimate in the politics of the near future. Mr. Thomas Hughes was also present and spoke at a collation served in the Sunday-school room; and the Hon. and Rev. W. H. Fremantle, an English clergyman of eminence, in a speech on the same occasion, expressed the hope "that the day would