law of blindness the thirty years war, with all its horrors raged in Europe and the Auto da fees in Spain were instituted and Bruno and Huss were burned and the massacre of St. Bartholomew stained history's page with blood. Must the command, "prove all things; hold fast the good" be ignored? Say, "yes," and you declare the work of Luther and of all the reformers wrong.

And that blind writer contradicts himself and destroys his fine contention for "Credo" when he declares: "You have got to have truth." And I affirm that to believe a thesis that is not proven because you cannot prove the contrary will not hold its ground in the domain of science or of common sense.

But that writer states a fundamental truth of Christianity when he says: "Christianity is a code of conduct." "Think," he says, "of the intimate and personal subject of Christ's teachings, of practical charity, of marriage and divorce, and the relations of children to parents; of manners, serenity and battlings; of working and food and prophesy; of trade and usury, of sin and righteousness, of repentance, and salvation. * * * The Master uttered the final word in morals," he says. And another great truth that writer uttered when he said: "The Sermon on the Mount is the perfection of thought, feeling and expression." Now I ask what difference to any one it is whence the origin of the ideas of that Sermon, so perfect in thought, etc.?— Whether born of the brains of thinkers of Alexandria and Athens and Corinth and Ionia, born of Neo-Platonism or of the brain of an unlettered Judean "Carpenter's son?" or suppose it be true that not an idea found in the New Testament, is not found in the teachings of the sages of Greece, Egypt, Persia, Judea, India and China, dating hundreds of years B. C.?

Nothing is truer or more perfect than the Christian ideal of human conduct the ideal presented in the life of service and self-sacrifice insisted upon in the Gospels, and presented as that of Jesus the "Example." "Did Jesus ever live at all?" one asks. It is doubted by some very learned persons that Homer ever lived. "Is the Iliad the work of scores of writers or did one master-mind produce it?” It matters not, it seems to me, whether it is the work of one or of many minds. "It is a masterly production," is all that need be said of it. So, too, of the life of Jesus: "It is a masterly example." Whether real or ideal it is the highest and not the less effective for good.

So let the doubting preachers keep to the path of common sense"prove all things and hold fast that which is good" and they will come nearer reaching the goal of truth and righteousness than the Jesuit who "just believes and don't argue about it." And I doubt very much whether James Whitcomb Riley ever gave utterance to any such balderdash. If he did it was only in the same vein with his versenot serious but laughable. And we may be sure that it was given by him in Hoosier dialect. "Jist b'lieve and dunt ar'gefy nur ax 'bout it nuther."

YE 221ST LESSON.

The Passing of Verse.

Why has verse gone out of favor with the millions? Unless as a fad it is never read in book, magazine or newspaper-but is passed over. The poetical works of Browning, Coleridge. Swinburn, Arnold and of Longfellow and Bryant and of Tennyson load center-tables and fill shelves as does painted china for ornament, as pictures are hungand this universally. The reason for the passing of verse is that it is not a utility-does not, as of old, deal with the real concerns of life. The Greek and Roman gods, pictured on canvas, chisled in marble, cast in bronze or fashioned of ivory and gold by artists of the present day or engraved in verse, no matter how artistically and beautifully

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shaped, would command no price-would have no value, the gods being no longer worshipped. Construct a building, no matter how perfect the design, it having no practical or beneficial use in this day—a Parthenon or a Colosseum in Chicago or Boston or even in Athens or Rome for no practical use whatever, it would only be in the way-as were the grand buildings in Chicago and St. Louis and Portland, and as they will be in Jamestown, the Expositions having gone by. So is every form of writing in the way-rubbish to be burned, as are newspapers out of date-that has not a permanently useful end. Α well-constructed livery barn will command more admiration than a pyramid built in this day as large as that of Cheops. In all things, usefulness is considered of primary value, and what of ornament that can be added is then, and only then, accepted and counted as an asset. The same in nature-nothing exists in which beauty is not secondary to usefulness in all things visible and tangible. The starry heavens, the sunset and the clouds have beauty; but there is no work of God not beautiful, as there should be none of man-but not beauty alone is displayed in creation. Not for the "music of the spheres" alone was the universe builded. Beauty in nature is adornment. The parallel of man's with God's works ought to be as nearly perfect as man can make it. No work of man's long cumbers the ground that is not above all else useful. Pile ornament on ornament upon a thing of no practical use and the labor is thrown away.

This then is the true explanation of the passing of verse. It is because the poets devote the muse to too little practical good. It is the manner of speech that beautifies. But the subject of a poem destined to become classic must be of human interest, as was that of the Iliad and of the Aeneid, and as is that of every poem that is read for long. Yet had the Iliad and the Aeneid been written in newspaper prose, would they have come down to us? Certainly not. No man or woman will read what does not appeal to human interest. Nothing (as a rule) is beautiful (nothing at all of man's creation) that is not above all else useful. The attribute of beauty can only attach to the useful. "Art for art's sake" is a misnomer.

Fiction deals with every-day life--touches every-day concerns- comes home to the reader like passing events. Hence Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel," "Lady of the Lake," and "Marmion" will always be read with profound interest. Whether enshrined in verse or written in good prose, true history will always be interesting, and fiction is a form of true history of events-events that affect the person in his everyday walks-true to life, if not to fact. The inimitable poems, named above of Sir Walter Scott's will be read centuries after his prose works are forgotten. Yet if all his novels had, by him, been coined into as beautiful language-versified-made as aesthetically perfect in construction as are the poems named, the time would never come when they would be out of date any more than the Iliad and Aeneid. Verse is language adapted to music. That gives it its charm. All poetry, anciently, was suited to music. But in English, "Ossian," written by Macpherson and "Leaves of Grass" by Whitman are exceptions to the rule; yet they, in construction, are a wide departure from prose style. Poetry cannot be defined any more than can beauty. But neither exists for its own sake. They must be auxiliary to what is vastly useful to be immortal-above all, instructive. We read prose because of the instruction it imparts; but, if all writing was superbly versified, as anciently it was the aim, it would be more in conformity with nature that makes symmetry her ultima thule of endeavor. Fewer books would be written, but more carefully.

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THE RIGHTS OF VAGRANTS AND CONVICTS.

YE 222D LESSON.

The Rights of Vagrants and Convicts.

"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"-inalienable rights-are theirs. All penalty is wrong-yea, unChristian. Only kindness and love should rule. "Overcome evil with good" is the divine law. Give every one a fair chance to make an honest living and all wrongdoing will cease. There is a cogent reason for every wrong done. Quit punishing men and women and go to work to help them. We are as we have been built. We do as we think and feel, and we think and feel according to our makeup. We are good or bad because of the atmosphere in which we have been developed, as ice is thick or thin for the same cause. The true purpose of social organization is to afford employment and fair wages to all. And no one imprisoned should be deprived the privilege of work, and he should be permitted, as far as practicable, to choose his work and be well paid for it.

There is one fundamental demand that organized labor ought, without delay, to make. It is that all labor be paid union wages, including enforced labor in penitentiary and on the stone pile, and for work on roads or streets by vagrants and others under arrest. Society has no right to do what the individual may not do. The individual is the greater factor of the common weal. It is as criminal and wrong for society to deprive any toiler, even the penitentiary convict, of the proceeds of his labor as it is for the individual to commit highway robbery. Every human being should be paid a just wage for his toil.

The severest punishment that may be justly inflicted for any crime, even murder, is to deprive the condemned of liberty-is to confine him within stone or brick walls, for the same reason that the insane are so confined-an altruistic reason-both for the good of society and of the individual, that he may be treated for his ailment. Every one not possessing normal reason, and whose behavior is, consequently, abnormal is, to that extent, insane. The state of mind, that produces vagrancy, is insanity. It is abnormal. So, too, is the state of mind that produces criminality abnormal, and hence it is insanity. The state of mind that leads to the drink habit or to the tobacco habit is insanity; for no sane person will intentionally and knowingly acquire that which will injure his body and mind as do these degrading habits. We build asylums for the insane, including also the class of mental paupers known as inebriates. The more enlightened and advanced minds are directing public opinion into the channel of a still more pronounced altruism, that is to say, into converting the penitentiaries into reformatories, hospitals and schools.

Thinkers, like Thomas Jefferson, by a Divine intuition, lead in defining rights. "Inalienable" applies to all human beings in all conditions "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" being rights "inalienable." And, only as children are placed in ward, may the men and women, with minds undeveloped, be placed under guardianship. "Give me liberty or give me death" is the appeal of every normal mind. The idea of "eye for eye and tooth for tooth" was negatived by him who said: "Resist not evil; love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you," etc. And by St. Paul: "See that none render evil for evil unto any man * * recompense no man evil for evil overcome evil with good," etc. Now, I repeat: What the individual may not do, neither may society do.

*

Nearly nineteen hundred years after these words of St. Paul, and the words quoted of him whom many worship as God and all men recognize as the teacher of only truth, were spoken, we are but little more than a century past the time when men and women were executed on the gallows for scores of different offenses, in England and America-yes, and at that time "heresy" was punished with death-when men were

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the most determined religionists-"Christians," they thought themselves. Even today an officer of the "humane society" of the capital city of Iowa, who is presumed to be "humane" beyond the average Christian man, advises punishing persons guilty of no crime, by chaining them behind carts, and there, not whipping them, as of old, but starving them-men "without place whereon to lay their heads" and "without purse or scrip," as were Jesus and his apostles. He says:

"Ten or a dozen of them could be started out under one overseer. Put them to work on the roads in the vicinity of the mines, and make each man haul so many loads and scatter it before giving him anything to eat. One overseer could easily watch a dozen men, and if need be the men could be chained to the carts so as to prevent their escape.

"The old system of having the vagrants work on the streets, chained together in pairs, was given up because public sentiment determined it demoralizing to children. While I personally believe that instead of being demoralizing it should serve as an example, the scheme of having them at work in the roads in the outskirts, even if chained, would do away with this objection."

What a horrible suggestion to be made by a “humane" official of the twentieth century of the Christian era!

YE 223D LESSON.

The Goal of Life-Effort.

Some persons are happy and others miserable. It is not the world without that makes them either happy or miserable. It is the world within. Why is it that little children are always happy? It is because they accept their surroundings as the best, till they are taught otherwise. Contentment is inborn; but how soon it wings its way from the human heart when we have left the domain of childhood! Why is it so? The moment we fall in love with ourselves we become miserable. We must become as little children to be happy-must be in love with everything and everybody other than ourselves, to "inherit the kingdom of God."

Here is a philosophy infinitely more sublime than that of Plato. Why? Because it places human happiness in self-abnegation. I am very sure that whoever would care to live for any other end than to "make the world the better, the wiser and the happier for his living in it" cannot be happy.

What is it to us whether we are appreciated or not if we can, in some way, add to the common good? If I know I am doing right, then, what others believe about me and say about me, and how they treat me, is quite indifferent to me in so far as I personally am concerned. It is better for the world that Washington is believed to be what he was, for his example is thus placed before the young for emulation. It is better for the world that the good man be appreciated; but to himself it is indifferent. I believe that the cause of unhappiness to ourselves is not that we are not loved, but that we do not love. Now, what is love? It is an intense desire to add to the happiness of another or of others.

It

And that does not mean a desire to minister to the selfish passions of another, or of others. It means "little deeds of kindness.' means sunlight. It means to be ourselves happy, and, being happy, to shine like the sun.

"Give us this day our daily bread" is the limit and farthest boundary of our asking for self. And we should "take no thought of the morrow." So intense should be our devotion to the work God has given us to do for others--healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, casting out devils, raising the dead-that we cannot take time to think of self. That we may not suffer hunger, thirst, cold or naked

ness, we may pray, and work. But, of course, these wants are common to animal life. We are placed above the beastial plane-we are men. A right thinker can never be unhappy. Riding on his coffin to the gallows John Brown was happy. John Brown did not expire. No,

"His soul went marching on."

"Give and ye shall receive"-that is the law. "He that loseth his life shall find it." Man is an eternal force. To hang John Brown did not lessen his momentum. The hanging was "up brakes," not "down." No man has any business to see a wrong exist and he not try to right it.

To make confession of my own true feeling, I say I do not care whether I live or die. But I go forward. The world is beautiful; but it is not yet finished and complete. I am one of God's workmen, placed on this planet to help make it a better planet. "But what can you do?" is it asked? I can do what comes near to be done, as far as I have ability. I will care for somebody. The Gracchi were great. Who gave them their greatness, Cornelia. The mother of Washington was as great as Washington. And Martha Washington, the wife, did her part-living lonely at Mount Vernon, while her husband for eight long years was absent from her. Perhaps she was unhappy. She ought not to have been. Our happiness is in doing our duty, not in what we receive. We should only be unhappy if we fail to do our part, not because another fails to do his part. It is where we are going, is the end. To believe in our friends. our children, our wife, our husband, ourself, as the God appointed, is our duty. Our world of action is where our elbows touch. If we fail in our duty to these who touch us then is our life a failure indeed.

Greatness consists in how we do. It is not in being a general that we become great, but in worthiness of being commissioned. Greatness is not in the office; but in how we fill the office. We have had one Washington and one Lincoln out of a score or more of Presidents. Men have won immortal fame by playing the fiddle. Thousands will flock to hear a certain noted woman whistle. Everyone may make a noise if not music with his lips, but only this one produces divine music.

You will merit immortal fame if you do your part as well in the office of a devoted wife or husband, mother or father, or son or daughter, as Ole Bull did his work as a fiddler. But not for fame or glory must the office be filled, but for love. It is not in receiving attention, but in giving attention, we become happy. Let our hearts be too full of love to want love. That is, I believe, the secret of a happy life, viz: Self-Abnegation.

YE 224TH LESSON.

Good Character and Altruism.

Good character and altruism are the words that define Christianity -the creed of the New Testament-that of the early church. One word "righteousness" has all this meaning the word most emphasized by St. Paul. The life these words stand for is all there is or ever was of the religions of enlightenment the world over-Jewish and Christian, Mohammedan and Zoroastrian, Buddhist and Confucian. They are all in essence one and the same religion and identical in origin the end the perfection of the human being. "Be ye perfect," said Jesus. The perfect life that is to say, "going about doing good" was the ideal of the Pentecostal disciples, as it was of the Master, Jesus Christ, and as it has been of all great preachers and teachers, prophets and reformers that have ever lived on the planet earth the finality of Grecian philosophy.

A perfect mind and character-doing no act-earning no money