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achievement. He recognizes the works of Abraham and Rahab as the evidences of internal goodness, and exhorts the Christian to fidelity in service as the test of his profession. In these respects the two teachings are the two hemispheres that constitute the globe of truth. They differ, but do not conflict. 3. Studying Paul carefully, one will observe that he perfectly agrees with James in his doctrine of works, and furnishes James the ground of his teaching. It is sometimes said that James contradicts Paul; but we reply that Paul confirms James. It is Paul who says to the Galatians, "Let every man prove his own work," and that they must crucify the flesh and show forth the fruits of the Spirit; it is Paul who writes to Timothy that women should adorn themselves with "good works," and prays that he himself may be delivered from "every evil work;" it is Paul who writes to Titus that the Lord Jesus will "redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works;" it is Paul who tells the Corinthians that they will be judged according to their works, whether they be "good or bad;" and it is Paul who, in his epistle to the Romans, extols the law as holy and just, and exhorts them, "Let not sin reign in your mortal body," and comforts them with the assurance that they may be made free from sin. Paul's doctrine of works, harmonizing with that of James, is superior to it because it is more comprehensive in its scope, and intimates the connection between the inward, or spiritual, and the outward, or ethical. So complete is Paul that we might dispense with James, but James cannot dispense with Paul. Let us hereafter cease to speak of the conflict between the two teachers, but rather emphasize the evident harmony between them.

Scholarly opinion as to the critical excellence of the Septuagint varies from the high belief of Jerome, that the translators of the Hebrew into Greek were inspired, to the descending declaration of Graf, that in its textual form it is unreliable, and is worthless as a key to the hidden meaning of the Old Testament. Both extremes are without warrant, for the Septuagint is nothing more than a translation in which the aid of inspiration was not necessarily involved; but it is, nevertheless, an authentic translation, which entitles it to credence, and constitutes it the safest repository of the Hebrew revelations now in existence. We should remember that the oldest Hebrew MS. now in use carries us back not more than a thousand years, while the Septuagint was completed about 280 B. C., or more than two thousand years ago, and that it is the test of the accuracy and fidelity of all Hebrew MSS. in the libraries of Europe, or in use anywhere in the study of the Old Testament. Even if the present Septuagint is an alteration of the original copy, as is sometimes claimed, it is substantially the same, and is our only guide into inspired Hebrew literature. The chief argument in defense of the original copy is, that the New Testament writers quoted very largely from it, Paul depending upon it almost altogether, and recognizing it as valid and every way authoritative for his purpose. We cannot conceive of Christ and the apostles frequently quoting from it if it were incorrect, unreliable, and an abandoned book among

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the Jews. According to the Talmud the Jews in Palestine condemned it; but this is not certain, and if they refused to receive it, the reason may have been, not that it was inaccurate, but that it was in a foreign tongue. Various attempts were made to prejudice the Jewish mind against the translation, as it was said that the translators were poor Greek scholars, and others said they knew little of Hebrew, and still others maintained that the translators were not Jews; and so opinions of no value were circulated among the Jews, and have been revived in these times, to discredit the credibility and standing of a work that for a long time was virtually the only form of the Old Testament in use in the Christian Church. specting the alleged deficiencies of the Septuagint, we must admit that the poetical books of the Old Testament are poorly translated; that Esther and Jeremiah differ from Masoretic manuscripts; that proper names are not always transferred correctly, and that, as the translators had before them manuscripts in Hebrew without vowel points, they failed at times to bring out the sense as it is now understood by the aid of the vowels. Taken together, these deficiencies signify that the Septuagint is an imperfect translation of the Old Testament; but Pope's Homer is equally imperfect, and yet no one doubts that the English poet has reproduced the story of the Greek bard. We may magnify the smallest imperfection into a mountain, or we may obscure it altogether in the light of the superior worth of the book as a whole. Without the Septuagint the Bible student would be dependent on a post-Christian Hebrew, and on numerous versions; with it, he is certain that he is leaning upon a translated Old Testament that once was in the highest authority, and still is superior to any version, edition, or copy of Hebrew made since the time of Christ. With the fall of the Septuagint will be recorded the fall of the Old Testament. So long as assaults continue upon the word of God, Greek scholars may retreat to the old fortress of the Septuagint to find in it some ammunition with which to check and destroy their adversaries.

The missionary idea is a controversial idea, or an idea ever running the gauntlet of criticism and misunderstanding, but it is triumphing over misconception and the unwarrantable assaults made upon it. It has had to fight its way into recognition both as the embodiment of a divine purpose and as having the divine right to draft the human energy of the Church, and is rapidly overcoming, even while apparently instigating, the opposition raised against itself, or the method of its execution. It has not succeeded in establishing its claim to the right of way in this world without argument, an appeal to facts, an interpretation of the Scriptures, and a constant exhibition of the moral necessities of the race. The position that the missionary project is divine, both in inception and final tendency, has been resisted by the Church itself; not, it is true, by Arminian thought, but logically by the conclusions of ultra-Calvinism. The doctrine of election, as applied to the heathen, involuntarily paralyzed the first attempt to recover the pagan world to a knowledge of truth; and yet the Calvinist now claims that Calvinism is a revival and a missionary

religion! At the present time Universalism is by its very terms opposed to aggression against pagan conditions; and the dogma of second probation renders every effort for the salvation of the heathen innocuous and unnecessary. Startling as it may seem, both the old and the new theologies represent a contradiction of the missionary idea, and if those adopting either are aggressive in spirit against paganism, it is in spite, and not the result, of the theology they have received and profess to teach. In the Arminian churches the opposition to the missionary movement is neither theological nor speculative nor founded in evident error, but it arises more from ignorance of the ultimatum proposed or indifference to the methods used for its accomplishment, or the greed that wealth too often inspires as an obstacle to well-understood duty. The Methodist Episcopal Church needs not to correct its theology in order to adjust itself to the missionary purpose, but only to stimulate its people to the performance of the great duty involved in the very conception of a positive Christianity. It is to call its people from sluggishness to activity, and from small views of benevolence to a philanthropy as large as the Gospel teaches in order to quicken the spiritual condition of the races. It is significant that the missionary committee, which recently held its annual session in Kansas City, Mo., did not trouble itself with theological discussions, or consider the missionary movement in any other aspect than as representing the divine plan for conquering the world to Christ, and that the people must respond to it with the enlarged liberality of which they are capable. No unfounded dogmas are in the way of the Church; no doctrine of predestination smites its activities with despair; no "eternal hope" remands the salvation of pagan empires to the eternities, but the trumpet-call is for myrrh, frankincense, and gold. Any Church with right theological conceptions, and able to command the gifts of consecrated minds, can take the world. Not faultless by any means, it is difficult to see wherein the theological basis of Methodism is an infirmity or a hinderance; it only remains for the Church to spread its gold before the Lord and the work shall be done.

The evangelical, or orthodox, party in Germany has lost one of its noted leaders in the death of Theodore Christlieb. Dying at the age of fifty-six years, he lived long enough to observe the erratic theological tendencies of his country and to strengthen the cords of Christian faith in the Prussian Church; but he passed away all too soon, because of impending conflicts in the arena of scholarly thought and inquiry. Naturally gifted with broad intellectual powers, he was quick to understand the significance of religious movements, and as alert to plant himself on the right side of Christian teaching and belief. His devout tastes, coupled with meditative aspirations, induced a studious habit that resulted in large literary achievements and prepared him for twenty years of professional service in the university at Bonn. He was an acute thinker, a terse and strong writer, and voluminous as an author, though his reputation rests largely upon one book from his hand, entitled Modern Doubt and Christian

Belief. We write of him chiefly as an evangelical leader, who, whether in the pulpit as preacher, in his study as author, in the class-room as lecturer, or in the forum as defender of orthodox views against the rationalism and loose theology of his times, never compromised the truth, or exhibited that intellectual vacillation which so often characterizes the unsettled religious teachers and professors in Germany. Though a student at Tübingen he did not imbibe the vagaries of Ferdinand Baur, nor freight himself with antagonisms to a Pauline Christianity. Though breathing the atmosphere of doubt, so prevalent in his younger days, it did not corrupt his faith, or prejudice his thought against the true forms of religion. His resisting power against the insinuations of infidelity was marvelous, though it was refined by scholarship and beautified by the reverent touches of the divine Spirit. Impervious to rationalistic influence, he was more stable in purpose, as he was more fascinating in manner, than that strong representative of the school of conciliation, Friedrich Tholuck. He occupied no midway position, he was not unsettled in religious convictions, he was not temporizing in belief; he was independent of schools, scriptural in sentiment, and a giant against religious error. Το his name must be attached the asterisk of death; but orthodoxy laments the fallen leader and rationalism has one less sturdy foe to conquer.

Time is a reality. We may not be able to prove it further than to say objectively it is measurable, and subjectively it is recognizable, by the consciousness which conforms itself to the law or fact of succession in

thinking and feeling. To define it is no easy task. Intelligibly to convey an exact idea of what it consists, or how it reproduces itself in successive years, is beyond the expression of the metaphysician or theologian. But the difficulty of definition or representation by no means furnishes an argument for its non-existence. Whether it exists as a mental conception, or is a subjective process, or is an objective fact, casting only its shadow upon the pathway of life, it exists. This is the first thought possible in connection with it. It is as much a fact as space, as a landscape, as the ocean, as man himself. Idealism cannot extinguish its factoral character, nor may materialism reduce it to a mathematical form. If philosophy or theology can make nothing of it, it is no evidence that it is nothing; rather, it is proof of their insufficiency to deal with a great mystery. But the Holy Scriptures, ever suggestive of mysteries, often treat them in a practical way, giving force to their meaning, and establishing their relation to things that exist. The apostolic exhortation to redeem the time implies that time is the subject of redemption as much as a house or a mountain, and is something, per se, therefore. It is impossible to conceive of atonement, wrought out upon Calvary, if time is absolutely nothing, or even if it were only a subjective reality. How can creation be understood, whether it was an instantaneous act of God or the process of evolution, if time must be considered a nonentity? This is a practical view, and answers the one-sided objection of the idealist. Fire burns; this is practical and establishes its reality.

Time passes, flies, moves, is something, does something, and, though mysterious, plays such a part in the universe as to make the universe what it is, and it is useless to deny its existence. If we reject the old mythology respecting time we should also reject the metaphysics that would reduce it to a mere thought, and rob it of its title to objective honors. It is not the new year that we particularly hail, for it is an incident, a mere fraction, but Time, a piece of eternity, in whose mysterious presence we pause, and to whose work we consecrate the powers of life.

It is a significant evidence of the efficacy of the machinery of Methodism that it is adapted to emergencies. In its ordinary working, as respects the itinerancy, it may excite only commonplace approval or unfraternal criticism, though very wise men outside of its influence admire its regularity and discern in it one of the secrets of Church progress; but when an exigency arises either in the pastoral or other official relation the unused or reserved forces are brought into action and immediate results are secured. The death of an editor, book agent, secretary, or bishop, however great the personal loss, does not confuse the Church any more than the death of a pastor or layman. At once our machinery fills the vacancy, or applies a remedy where needed, and the work goes on undisturbed by loss or interruption. The Western Christian Advocate had a new editor very soon after the sudden departure of Dr. Bayliss. The Book Committee unanimously decided in favor of Rev. D. H. Moore, D.D., of Colorado, who commenced wielding the editorial pen with as much ease, grace, and power as if he had been familiar with the position all the days of his life. It is, or has been, the policy of the Methodist Episcopal Church to thrust untried men into places of responsibility, such as the episcopacy, secretaryship, book agency, editorship, and whatever requires courage and resources, nor could it do otherwise; but it has rarely made a mistake. The men whom it calls may be untried in the particular spheres to which it introduces them, but usually they are tried men in the fields of scholarship, in positions of trust, and along the lines of ministerial efficiency and heroism. Dr. Moore is one of the tried, heroic men of the Church, and is known for pre-eminent qualities of character which are the guarantees of power and success. Fascinating in style, eloquent in speech, versatile in thinking, and broad and accurate in his observations, he is fitted for the new position committed to him. True to Methodism, loyal to humanity, and courageous for the right, the Western will be fearless in the defense of Methodist thought and institutions, and conservative only when radicalism will be premature. The instinct of the Book Committee in the selection of the editor was a combination of tact and wisdom, and Providence is loaning approval upon the choice as made. If the future prosperity of the paper shall not exceed even its record in the past, it will not be because of a want of ability, energy, and industry in the new editor. We welcome him to peace, conflict, honor, and to all that editorial life may have in store for him.