moral supremacy, they will necessarily be the moral powers Among these Leo XIII. and his advisers have perceived that democracy is every day coming to the foremost rank. "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden," is the legitimate cry of the Church In uttering it and making himself, as he has done, the pope of the democracy, Leo XIII. has shown himself to possess, as his predecessors have done before him, a full share of the wisdom of the serpent, while at the same time, in protesting against the appetites of socialism, he maintains the harmlessness of the dove. The triumph of democracy without socialism is the ideal which he has set before the orthodox. Henceforth, every good Catholic must be a democrat, but he is distinctly forbidden to call himself a socialist. The historic developments of this ideal, the manner in which it has been, as it were, borne in from the circumfer ence to the centre of the Church, the part which has been played in the gradual evolution of the Holy See by the great ecclesiastics of Germany, England, Ireland, and America, and, above all, the intimate harmony of the ideal with the Christian traditions, are demonstrated in a masterly manner in this ar ticle. How to give practical form to the ideal is reserved for the next.

"IT

FRENCH NEO-CHRISTIANITY.

T is a considerable sign in France when ridicule changes its object and passes from one camp to the other," says the Vicomte de Vogüé in the remarkable article entitled "The Neo-Christian Movement in France," in the January Harper's.

The writer traces with an admirable pen the course of literary-i. e., Voltairian-scepticism of the first half of the century, the scientific scepticism which has accompanied or supplanted it since 1840, the amalgamation of the two into the official unbe lief for which the French Government has stood during the last decade, and the reaction, which is even now upon us. Not superstitious, peasant France, which is just being paganized by the teaching of the last century, but the students, the young doctors, lawyers, literary men, the scions of France, her hope and strength-these have revolted from the dry substitute that scientific atheism makes for a religion of ideals.

"In the years that have elapsed since 1880 the religious sentiment seemed to have received a mor tal stroke. Outside of the group of militant Catho lics-and they were in a very small minority in the professions, wherein is formed the thought that directs the public mind-everything seemed to have conspired against this sentiment-the official action of the legal power, the old Voltairianism of the middle classes, the scientific disdain of the studious, the coarse naturalism of the literary men. We might well have supposed that the generation which was submitted to the decisive test would be definitely emancipated from all religious preoccu pation. It is precisely the contrary which has come to pass."

For the generation that has grown up in the disheartening atmosphere of the twenty years after 1870 has tried the religion of scientific criticism and has found it wanting. This brood of fin de siècle thinkers have asked for bread, and stones have been proffered them. “There happened what always happened at all epochs of great expansion of knowledge. at the first moment this irradiation of light seemed to brighten the whole horizon, and man believes himself to be freed forever from the gloom wherein he was feeling his way darkly; but soon the impatient spirits spring further forward, beyond the luminous zone, the magnified horizon retires before their eyes, and the gloom grows there once more, thicker than ever Above all, it was clear from too evident social symptoms that if science can satisfy some very distinguished minds it can do nothing to moralize and discipline societies; criminal statistics loudly proclaim this inefficacy."

There was no creed waiting to receive the mantle of scientific dogmatism; the result has been nihil ism, pessimism, introspective self-torture, a wracking analysis of life, Schopenhauer, Taine, Tolstoï. 'Rationalists, sceptics, atheists, the minds that are most emancipated from religious beliefs, return by a different route to the state of thought of an Indian yogui, of an Egyptian anchorite of the second century, or of a scholastic monk of the eleventh century, with the only difference that they do not make the demon intervene. They denounce, in the same terms as of old, the pitfalls of nature, of the flesh, and of life."

"In literature, these new-comers declare themselves disgusted with naturalism and scandalized by dilettanteism. They require their writers to have seriousness and moral inspiration. They have a marked taste for what is nowadays called 'symbolism,' that is to say, a form of art which, though painting reality, is constantly bringing reality once more into communication with the mystery of the universe. And as the models of this kind have been given by the mystic authors of the great epochs of faith, we see unbelieving men of letters who read with delight and praise above all things the Imitation of Christ and the writings of St. Francis of Assisi and St. François de Sales."

SYMPTOMS OF THE NEO-CHRISTIANITY.

Proofs which cannot be gainsaid are patent in the writings of M. Rod, the author of "Moral Ideas of the Present Time," of M. Pouilhan in his "New Mysticism," above all of M. Lasserre, the young

student author of "The Christian Crisis," and many others, from whom the Vicomte Vogüé gives striking and significant quotations. People do not see this movement in the flash and glitter of the Boule vard. "But if they would take the trouble to live with the professors and students, to read serious publications, to follow the lectures of the Sorbonne, and sit on the benches of the schools of law and of medicine, they would at once discern the silent labor that is going on within the brain of the nation, in the intellectual centre whence the in fluences of the future will start."

"THE SOUL OF THE FORESTS AND THE MISTS. What is the historical significance of this unexpected groping after the eternal mystery? According to the Vicomte de Vogüé, it is the Celtic as opposed to the Latin element in the Frenchman.

"In the new generations we notice the reappearance of one of the essential elements of the French race, namely, the collective and fraternal souldemocracy, as it is called nowadays-of the old Celtic and Gaulish stock, the soul of the forests and the mists, early oppressed by the hard Roman discipline, by the limiting and hierarchic spirit of these Latins, who came from a country of rocks and clear skies. This soul is once more cropping out. Everything announces the rising of the old sap."

"THE

DR. BRIGGS ON THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION. HEOLOGICAL Education and Its Needs" is the subject of a learned paper by the Rev. Dr. C. A. Briggs in the January Forum. He first traces the development in theological education in America through three stages: as a part of the college, as an independent professional school, and as an independent school in friendly relations with the university, and then proceeds to point out some of the advantages and disadvantages that have sprung out of theological seminaries. Theology has suffered in this country, he asserts, from having been confined to separate schools. "Theology has shut herself off from her sister sciences in America during the present century, and has paid the penalty in well-merited neglect by the learned men of other departments of knowledge. Theology is the queen of the sciences, but she can reign only in the university. She dethrones herself when she retires by herself into the theological school." Training in theological schools has, he admits, the advantage of giving the ministry a higher professional education, but it does this at the expense of a broader education.

The isolation of theology has also the disadvan tage, it is still further pointed out, of excluding from theological training men of other pursuits in life. Theological education should be free, open to any man or woman who has sufficient elementary training to pursue these studies. The Church at the present time needs laymen who are trained in theology. It is not necessary that these should undergo

the entire course of training that ministers undergo, but it should be open to those properly qualified, so that they may pursue those studies that seem to them important for their work in life. The new departure of Union Theological Seminary, in New York, in opening its studies to graduate students of Columbia College and the University of New York, makes it possible for lawyers, physicians, and teachers, and others who desire theological training, to secure it in an institution already established where there are many courses of studies suitable for the purpose."

Dr. Briggs believes that theology is for the people as well as for the ministry, and urges the extension of instruction in this science to the public through lecture courses similar to the Chautauqua and University Extension courses.

66

“(1) A society, something like the English Church Union, or the Church Association, or the Evangelical Alliance (except that this last is undenominational), consisting of persons acknowledg ing themselves as Latitudinarian members of the Church of England, and organized for the purpose of advancing our doctrines generally, and especially of defending all Latitudinarian holders of offices whose positions are endangered on doctrinal grounds. (2) Institutions for education, including the spread of literature, the training of candidates for holy orders, the religious instruction of other students, and the advancement of theological learning. (3) Missions to the heathen, preferably by arrangement with the older missionary societies to accept Latitudinarian missionaries supported by us; but failing this, by means of a new missionary society, avoiding collision with the older societies as they avoid collisions with each other, and working with them so far as they will let us; missions also to the degraded and destitute parts of the English population, conducted in the same way, by alliance with the parochial clergy, and existing agencies where they will accept us, by separate agencies where they will not, but always distinctly teaching our principles."

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In explaining how he would work out his scheme, he makes the following suggestions

“On one important point we might educate by object-lessons the equality of the Christian churches. In fact, by concerted action, it might not only be taught but accomplished- jumped,' as

the phrase is. Remember Stanley's discovery that the law does not forbid Nonconformist ministers to preach in churches. It may not be good law, but it is good enough to fight with. Let our society appoint a Conciliation Sunday. On that day let every beneficed clergyman who belongs to us invite a Nonconformist minister to preach in his church, and every non-beneficed clergyman officiate in a Nonconformist chapel (and administer the Communion according to the forms there in use, if the rules of the denomination allow him); then let the bishops do their worst. Let us take it before all the possible courts, and if the courts decide against us let us use the invincible weapon of the Ritualists. let us go to prison for contempt.' After half a dozen imprisonments the bishops would de sist for very shame, as they have done with the Ritualists. When the next Conciliation Sunday came round it would be taken as a matter of course."

THE ENGLISH CLERGY IN POLITICS.

THE

HE Review of the Churches (London) makes The Place of the Clergy in Politics" the subject of a symposium in its December number. Canon Barker, Canon Wilberforce, Rev. W. Tuckwell, Rev. J. Guinness Rogers, and Rev. F. W. Macdonald discuss the subject from the clerical point of view. They are all practically agreed in thinking that the parson has a duty as a citizen, with the exception of Mr. Macdonald, who thinks that, on the whole, the parson is better out of politics. Mr. Macdonald thinks that the men are very few who will not do more harm than good in leaving the quiet paths of ministerial duty to take part in po litical life. Canon Wilberforce replies thus to the four questions put by the Review of the Churches:

1. Inasmuch as "politics" are the morals of the nation, I consider that the oft-repeated aphorism that the accredited ministers of religion overstep their functions when they actively participate in the political struggles of the time is both shallow and mischievous. If the clergy of all denominations abstain from influencing the political life of the nation the mainsprings of national progress are likely to become unspiritualized.

2. The extent to which their influence should be exerted will depend entirely upon circumstances, and should be in the support of principles without regard to parties.

I consider that the sacred ministry, so far from emancipating an intelligent Englishman from participating in the responsibilities of political life, accentuates his obligations as a citizen of heaven to raise his voice against state permitted vices, which tend to undermine the stability of the commonwealth; and though he may lose popularity among lukewarm temporizers who would prefer to hear in their pulpits echoes of their own opinions, his ministry unquestionably gains in real power if he has the courage solemnly to proclaim, even in the midst of the excitement of a contested election,

the responsibility before God of the exercise of the franchise in connection with such blots upon Chris tian civilization as the Indian opium revenue, the demoralizing bane of the liquor traffic, the inade quate protection of the purity of women, and the oppression of weaker people, without courting the favor or shrinking from the displeasure of any political party, however powerful.

3. It is not easy to define what has and what has not been a blessing in the past life of the nation, inasmuch as the eternal purpose works behind all the multitudinous activities of national life, and in that eternal purpose all things work together for ultimate good

4. I see no necessity for the differentiation suggested. The presence of Bishops in the House of Lords, and their complete freedom to debate and vote upon every question affecting the welfare of the nation, is a sufficient indication that the absten tion of her ordained ministry from the political issues of the day is not the theory of the Church of England.

THE DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL POSITION OF WOMEN IN CHINA.

INC

IN the Deutsche Rundschau for December Prof. C. Arendt gives much interesting information concerning the position of women in China. His pictures of the domestic and social life of Chinese women are the result of personal observation in the country, supplemented by the study of Chinese literature; but, it must be understood, it is of North China in particular that he writes, and he goes into great detail in describing the marriage customs.

Woman's lot in China cannot be called an enviable one. As soon as she makes her appearance in the world she is received with less joy than if she had been a son; yet the affection of the Chinese for their children is, on the whole, one of their favorable characteristics, and the little daughter does not come to much harm during the first few years of her life. Till she is about twelve she has much the same freedom as her brother, though she must, at the same time, undergo some training in the duties of housekeeping and in fine needlework.

Her mental training is, however, greatly neglected. If we follow the Chinese girl further on her way through life we see her in sad and friendless circumstances. At the age of twelve she is banished from society, to become, as the Chinese put it, "the young girl who sits in the house," and to look forward to the day when she will be given to a husband whom she in all probability has never before seen.

The marriage customs and ceremonies are very curious. When the married pair first enter their own apartments the bridegroom removes with his own hand the red silk veil in which the bride has been enveloped, and he sees his wife's face for the first time. They salute each other ceremoniously before they sit down. The other women present

then invite the young pair to partake of food. And what is the lot of the wife after she takes up her abode in her new home? She must obey both her husband and her mother-in-law; she may not come into contact with men or the outside world; she may not go to public amusements or to the theatre, and she cannot read. She has to sit alone in her room while her husband entertains his guests, but she may receive her lady friends and return their visits. In a third chapter Professor Arendt gives us a more pleasing picture of the Chinese woman in the capacity of mother.

WHAT TO DO FOR THE BRITISH LABORER.

N the Nineteenth Century Lord Thring writes, as

INthe Nott, intelligently and lucidly as to what

is necessary to be done in order to settle the English land question. His own summary of his paper is to be found in the following paragraph, which should be committed to heart by parliamentary candidates in every rural constituency at the coming election:

Comparatively small amendments of the statutebook would remove the legal obstacles in the way of a complete scheme of improvement. Arouse the revenue authorities and the board of agriculture, and you have brought into the market from time to time parcels of land of a size eminently adapted to the wants of the laborer. Moreover, they will not be huddled together in large, unmanageable lumps, but distributed in small holdings throughout the rural parishes. Create district registers of title by making every county council a register office for titles and a sale office of land, and you have the machinery for selling the land. Make the post-office an advertising instrument, and their officers collectors of the instalments of purchase-money, and there arises a complete organization for bringing home to the peasant a knowledge of the land he can buy, and a perception of the easy mode in which he can acquire that land, pay the purchase money, and deal with it cheaply.

"Create village councils, and you invest the peasant with a status which will give him an interest in his village, and a position which he will not readily exchange for that of a town resident. It is not, however, the interest of the well-to-do laborer which is alone to be considered. Dives and Lazarus may well both claim sympathy. Make it the duty of the parish in the first instance, and of the county council as a secondary authority, to assert the right of the public to the footpaths and the roadside wastes, and the blessing of the artist, the stranger, and the ploughman shall rest on the head of the government who cares for such things, small in themselves, but large in their effects."

From a Farmer's Point of View.

Mr. W. E. Bear, who follows Lord Thring, discusses the proposals of both political parties with considerable severity and impartiality. He maintains that the less power the parish council has in the taking and letting of land the better it will be. The

county council should be the supreme local authority, with either district councils or parish councils acting under it and sending delegates to it, but there should not be both parish and district councils.

Mr. Bear is in favor of district councils. He thinks it would be highly dangerous to the peace and welfare of the rural community to commit any considerable powers to the parish councils. Mr. Bear thinks that the worst of foreign competition is now over, and that an era of moderate prosperity for agriculture is now beginning. Nothing would more rapidly increase the demand for labor than a real and effective Tenant Right Act, giving security for the capital of farmers invested in their homes.

Mrs. Batson, writing on "Hodge at Home," pleads for two things, which are not often coupled together. first, that the laborer should be deprived of his beer, and, secondly, that he should be encouraged to marry as soon as possible. Twenty-three is better than twenty-five, but twenty is better than either.

IN

LABOR TROUBLES IN NEW ZEALAND.

IN the Economic Journal (British) for December Mr. Charlewood gives a very interesting account of the way in which the strike in New Zealand, which grew out of the Australian strike against the shipping companies, was defeated:

"Before the strike broke out here the price of produce at Sydney was rapidly advancing to famine rates, and naturally our farmers were anxious to reap the benefits. The strikers, therefore, at once had the farmers arrayed against them, and it was mainly owing to their assistance that the Union Company won such a complete victory.

one.

"Immediately after the Seamen's Union called out their men from the Union Company's steamers, the wharf laborers went out, and the whole work of the port was carried on by volunteers and free laborers. For a week the scene in port was a novel Men of independent means, members of athletic clubs, bank clerks, schoolmasters, etc., were to be seen loading and unloading ballast, coal, and general cargo, shunting trucks on the wharves-in fact, carrying on the whole work of the port. It was astonishing how soon they adapted themselves to their new work; for the first two days there was naturally considerable confusion, but after that the work was carried on in the most orderly manner."

Curiously enough, the unionist strikers had no objection to the volunteers, and did not treat them with the same severity that they showed to the nonunion workmen. The strike, however, was utterly defeated; and although the labor candidates carried all before them at the polls the leaders of the strike were not among those who were returned to Parliament.

a spectacle as that of an Asiatic people suddenly throwing off its ancient customs like an old dress, while several European states still carefully preserve their old and antiquated forms of government, has never before been witnessed.

IN

LESSONS FOR A YOUNG MAN'S LIFE.

N the Young Man for January Prof. John Stuart Blackie publishes an interesting article on reminiscences of his youth. Like a lady's letter, the most important part of it is in the postscript, in which he sets down a few of the rules of conduct which have guided him through life, and which he has no doubt may have contributed largely to any praiseworthy work that he has been able, in the course of a long life, to achieve.

"I. Never indulge the notion that you have any absolute right to choose the sphere or the circumstances in which you are to put forth your powers of social action; but let your daily wisdom of life be in making a good use of the opportunities given you. "II. We live in a real, and a solid, and a truthful world. In such a world only truth, in the long run, can hope to prosper. Therefore avoid lies, mere show and sham, and hollow superficiality of all kinds, which is at the best a painted lie. Let what ever you are, and whatever you do, grow out of a firm root of truth and a strong soil of reality. "III. The nobility of life is work. We live in a working world. The lazy and idle man does not count in the plan of campaign. 'My Father work. eth hitherto, and I work.' Let that text be enough.

"IV. Never forget St. Paul's sentence, 'Love is the fulfilling of the law.' This is the steam of the social machine.

"V. But the steam requires regulation. It is regulated by intelligence and moderation. Healthy action is always a balance of forces, and all extremes are dangerous; the excess of a good thing being often more dangerous in its social consequences than the excess of what is radically bad.

"VI. Do one thing well. Be a whole man,' as Chancellor Thurlow said. 'To one thing at one time.' Make clean work and leave no tags. Allow no delays when you are at a thing; do it, and be done with it.

"VII. Avoid miscellaneous reading. Read nothing that you do not care to remember; and remember nothing you do not mean to use.

"VIII. Never desire to appear clever and make a show of your talents before men. Be honest, loving, kindly, and sympathetic in all you say and do. Cleverness will flow from you naturally, if you have it; and applause will come to you unsought from those who know what to applaud; but the applause of fools is to be shunned.

"IX. Above all things avoid fault-finding and a habit of criticism. Let your rule in reference to your social sentiments be simply this. pray for the bad, pity the weak, enjoy the good, and reverence both the great and the small, as playing each his part aptly in the divine symphony of the universe."

LE

THE FOLLY OF NUMBERS. How Are Nations to be Fed in Time of War? E SPECTATEUR MILITAIRE, alluding to the speeches made on November 5 in the French Chamber of Deputies by Le Vicomte de Montfort and M. Raiberti, takes the former to task for speaking somewhat contemptuously of the "folly of numbers," which, having swept over the whole face of Europe, makes it necessary for France to recognize numbers as a factor of primary importance in face of the armaments of her neighbors. Le Spectateur Militaire considers that what M. de Montfort characterizes as the "folly of numbers" should really be looked upon as a sentiment of precaution; and that any government which failed to impose on all its citizens without distinction the obligation of military service would lamentably neglect the responsibility which rests upon it, to take, as far as possible, all needful measures for guaranteeing the country against defeat and possible annihilation. The real folly is not in organizing the military forces of the country, but in overlooking the fact that even in time of war the country must live.

The women, children, and the aged, all those, in fact, who do not march against the enemy, have needs which must be satisfied in order to insure their existence. Who, then, is to supply their imperative needs when the whole of the youth, and even those of mature years, are under arms and engaged with the enemy? This, surely, is a grave and difficult problem, to which no one appears hitherto to have paid attention before M. Raiberti raised the question in the sitting of November 5 by asking: "What is to become, when the nation has set out, of the country left behind? . . . The war will support those who go; but who will support those who do not go? The men over forty-five years of age will remain by their own firesides; but how many are they? . . . They number 3,015,000 men between the ages of forty-five and sixty. But how are these 3,015,000, who no longer possess the strength and endurance of youth, to carry out simultaneously their own work and the work of the four million absentees? How are these three million men to feed the remaining thirty-five or thirty-six millions?"

Surely, the true folly of numbers lies in the exag geration of the obligation to military service prescribed by the law of 1889, which extended this obligation up to the age of forty-five years. The law of 1872, which was gravely imperfect in many respects, was yet wise enough not to impose this obligation on French citizens over forty years of age. Now, it seems extremely probable that the concurrence of all between forty and forty-five will be indispensable to insure, with those still older, the existence of that portion of the nation which remains in the country after the departure of the army; and it is not even absolutely certain that the war will be able to support the army. Under somewhat similar circumstances the National Convention