had still increased and covered a much more extensive territory.

In 1875 a secretary from "the isolated," wide awake to their needs and with a burning zeal to help them, was put into the field. About this time a new convert, with brain fired with the magnitude and beneficence of our religion, had been called from orthodoxy to the Third Church, Chicago. The Chicago Times, ever alert to a wise investment, published his sermons in its Monday issue, carrying the gospel of "truth, righteousness, and love" into homes it had never reached before. This new missionary agent (the Times) brought to Mr. Powell letters of inquiry from many places.

What was this religion? Where could they get more? etc. These letters forwarded to the secretary increased the already extensive correspondence materially, as some of them were from young men in universities, who grew zealous and aggressive, asking for documents by the fifties for distribution among their school-fellows. The missionary needs to be met through the mails had become so imperative in 1878 that a semi-monthly, called the Pamphlet Mission, designed to be the instrument in forming Sunday circles, with sermons and services, was started. This afterward became Unity. In the meantime the correspondence seemed to increase much more rapidly than the facilities for carrying it on. The sermons published in the secular papers, and the publication of the Pamphlet Mission, awakened fresh interest in new themes pertaining to religion. Miss F. L. Roberts was appointed assistant secretary, and the Chicago women rented and fitted up headquarters for the conference work and Pamphlet Mission, which had now assumed the more euphonious title, Unity. In these headquarters, though crowded and not very inviting, much good work was done; the secretary carrying on his work there when not in the field, Miss Roberts taking up the end of the work now known as "post office mission work," and looking after

the interests that came into the office, and the Chicago women meeting there for work, study, and consultation.

About this time Miss Sallie Ellis entered the missionary field in Cincinnati, and began that wonderful work she was enabled to accomplish through her intense devotion and untiring energy, that work which has aroused so much enthusiasm and so strong a desire to go and do likewise. To her consecration and efficiency is due the interest awakened in this work east and west- a work now brought as nearly to perfection, it would seem, as it well can be.

I think in this little history of the rise and growth of the post office mission, you will plainly see that it began in a crude way, away back in the fifties, groping on through book depositories, tract distributors, colporteurs, missionaries, The Sunday School, the Pamphlet Mission; each giving it an impetus until it grew so great that it required organized effort and a band of workers. You see that it is not the child of women's conferences, but it was a large factor in creating these women's organizations. Man wrestled for a quarter of a century with the problem of "how to reach the isolated"; woman, with her pen, is solving it.

And we must not forget that when the query was first put postage was expensive and railroads few. The United States Government and "soulless railroad corporations" have materially aided in the solution of this our most perplexing problem. But it is only being solved. There is more work to do, more people are to be reached, new phases of thought, and new wants are awaiting our patience and efforts.

The material used for this missionary work thirty-five or forty years ago was almost entirely doctrinal - a vindica tion of Unitarianism vs. Trinitarianism.

Later we endeavored to justify our position by publishing and circulating lists of eminent persons who were of our religious household. Now, however, we have left the question of our popularity, respectability even, to care for itself. We have grown into the higher ideal of a living,

working, useful faith - a homely faith that goes straight to the heart of every man and woman, enkindling fresh hope and courage to meet life's responsibilities, perplexities, and privations.

The ideal is truer than the real. We strive for, grow to the ideal; we struggle with, grow from the real into the higher — the ideal. To-day is only the highway to to-morrow. To-morrow is our real; it holds our hopes, our aspirations. To it we look for the realization of our longings.

And our post office mission is to-day what it is because of this forward-looking tendency, this onward march. Suspended animation savors of death. In healthy life there must be action. The latest development in reaching the isolated - I mean the religiously isolated, whether they dwell in city, hamlet, prairie, or wildwood-is by personal contact and the living voice. Mrs. Dix has told us of the work of the New York League and its happy, hopeful promise. There is a trend along the line in this direction of lay service work. Already a post office mission recipient has begun this work in Florida, another in Texas, and Mr. Judy's Church of the Isolated" is evolving. But this means more work, not less; more consecration, more energy, more faith in far-reaching results.

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And thus will come this new gospel-a gospel that emphasizes the religion of household duties, the sanctity of cleanliness, the ethics of cooking, the consecration and devoutness due to parentage, the holy mission of homemaking, the high calling of training the future generation to holy living; a religion for the counting-house, for the farmer and the farm-hand, for the toiler everywhere; a religion that teaches the sanctity of work and the infidelity of idleness; a religion "of the people, by the people, and for the people."

THE RELATION OF YOUNG WOMEN TO CHURCH MISSIONS - ADDRESS BY REV. LORENZA HAYNES OF MASSACHUSETTS.

What relation have young women to the needs and advantages of church missions? They are an important factor by the fresh energy they can bring to the work, and by the earnestness of purpose with which they engage in what they are interested in. This is well illustrated by their coming so rapidly to the front in educational, philanthropic, and religious movements. Young women are related to Christian missions by the highest, loveliest quality of the heart- gratitude which recognizes how much it owes to the teachings of Christianity. Great as were the benefits which Christ's doctrines brought to men, yet far greater were those resulting to woman as woman. The animus of his religion lifted her not only from spiritual darkness into marvelous light, but from ignorance, servitude, and degradation. It has raised her from man's feet to take her place by his side, so to be his equal, his true helpmate; so to advance with him up the steps of knowledge, and so labor with him in extending Christianity and all the great philanthropies that are the outcome of it. Women can not overrate the debt they owe to the teachings of Jesus. As Christianity is its own best evidence, so what it has done for woman is the best proof of its claims upon her. Young women, alert to truth, justice, and gratitude, must be alive to their relations to church missions. They are related to this work by the law of heredity. They are soon to fill the places and do the work of their elders, and should be ready for apprenticeship before the elders close their labors. With the onward, upward march of the world's progress, and with increasing opportunities and obligations, the young women of to-day must do more and better work than their predecessors if they would hold even equal rank. They are required to bear the banner "Ex

celsior." This must be done not alone to keep the great moral and spiritual forces in operation, but to fulfill the essentials of their own development. Life's purpose can be attained only by living in the likeness of the Father. Growth into the moral likeness of God means growth into the moral activities of God. The more we work for the thing we love, the more we love it, and the result is the soul's enlarged life. The reverse is true. “An angel's wing would droop if long at rest." Christianity can not mean much to a heart that takes no active measures to spread its blessings. A love of God is increased by a love of our neighbor, and a right love of our neighbor is increased by doing something to benefit his spiritual life. The earlier it is begun the earlier it becomes a habit of heart, and the character it forms is life's harvest, and all that can be carried to the great beyond.

One of the chambers in the Catacombs of St. Calixtus at Rome is called the "Cubiculum of St. Cecilia," in honor of that Christian woman who was buried here after her martyrdom, 224 A. D. On the wall of this room is a fresco of St. Cecilia, a beautiful Roman lady in rich attire and adornments. Near it is a niche for the lamp which burned before the shrine. On the back of the shrine is a large head of Christ, with rays of glory around it in the form of a Greek cross. It is believed to be the earliest picture of him in existence. There was a silent, an impressive eloquence to me in those two faces on the wall, down among the dark tunneled streets of that city of the dead, where the grass never grows and the sun never shines. The sad, gentle countenance of him who died for humanity, and the lovely face of her who gave her life for his truth, were a touching reminder of woman in Christ's work.