road companies, banks, and all great commercial concerns find it necessary to appoint one man at the head of affairs. In this way, following the suggestions of analogy, philosophy asserts that one Supreme Governor guides all the agencies of the universe.

Simple and natural worship demands one God only. The deepest and strongest communion is between two souls, as between husband and wife, parent and child. When a third person intrudes himself, the freedom and tenderness of conversation are disturbed; and, if several people are in the room, communion ceases, and social conventionality

Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord: and

The worship of one God is simple, natural, tender, sweet, and free. It is confusing, per

and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt-offerings

or more Gods at the same time: one has to think of giving each deity his proportion of attention and reverence. The deepest thought is the offspring of the mind concentrated on one object; and the truest worship is the result of the human soul feeling the touches of the One Heart. The Greeks and Romans escaped from such a distraction of

LEV. xix. 18.

ONE GOD.-Christ taught that there is one God only. He trusted in one God only; he prayed to one God only; he worshipped one God only; and he called him "my God" and "my Father."

In every department of scientific investigation the unprejudiced searcher sees proofs that all creation is the work of one Supreme Mind.

In order to manage any branch of human activity well, one head is necessary. The city schools need one superintendent; the college requires one president; municipal affairs demand one mayor; the nation must have one ruler; in national crisis the supreme power is placed in one dictator; rail

to Venus for success in love, to Minerva for wisdom, to Bacchus in the joys of wine, to Neptune for protection at sea; but the Jews worshipped the one God, whose attribute the classic deities faintly represented.

THE CONSECRATION OF ALL OUR PowERS.-God has designed each power that we have for some divine and useful purpose. When we train our faculties and consecrate them to their proper uses, we are obeying the command to love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

It is the province of the human heart to love parents, relatives, children, friends, neighbors, our country, and things that are good and beautiful. Our hearts were made to cling to and to lean upon persons and

things. In loving others, we are loving God, because our hearts are then consecrated to the ends for which they were made. We cannot love infinity, because we are not infinite. God is infinite, and we can love only parts of him. The boy loves his mother, and to that extent he is loving the Infinite Being who is looking at him through his mother's eyes. Last week I saw fifty girls in the State School at Whittier, receiving care, love, protection, education of mind and hand. Why are the poor girls there? Their parents or guardians did not love them wisely; and consequently they did not love God with their hearts.

The soul represents our animal life. The man who eats good food in sufficient quantities, who trains his body to do its work, who labors and rests, and presents his body a living sacrifice in the house of prayer, is loving his Creator with his body. He is dedicating it to its proper uses.

We are immortal spirits. Beyond this world there is an eternal world. It belongs to us by spiritual inheritance. Religion is the sense of this eternal world in our souls, and the communion of our spirits with the inhabitants of that glorious realm. God is there. All our departed friends are there. Angels and archangels are there. That is our future home. A part of our life is there, "hid with Christ in God." The roots of our being are among the mysteries of eternity. When we feel these roots, or this hidden life of ours, when our "spirit searcheth the deep things of God," we are inheriting our eternal life. And, when we cultivate our spiritual nature, we are loving God with all our spirit. The spirit is then devoted to its divine purpose.

God has endowed us with reason, to examine, weigh, compare things, and to discover the highways for conscience. All movements in morals and religion began in criticism. Abraham left his father's house because he had reasoned out that idols are not gods, and that behind sun, moon, and stars there is a Being to be trusted and worshipped. Moses, Paul, Gregory, Luther, reasoned out new ways for the spirit of their ages to move in. To use our reason properly is to love God with it.

THE NEIGHBOR.-It is evident from the Gospels that Christ taught that we should use the Golden Rule in our relations to our

fellow-beings, and that heaven is the outcome of true service to man. Christ never called virtue "filthy rags." He represented morality as the flower of the religious life.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS-We have now studied, in a brief way, the evident meaning of Christ's creed. It is a threefold statement of the highest importance. It has God for its beginning, and man for its end; and the beginning and end are joined together by the relations between God and man, and between man and man. The Decalogue is simply an expansion of Christ's threefold creed.

QUALITIES OF THE CREED.-This creed of Christ has many qualities to recommend it to our hearts:

1. It is found in the Bible.

2. Its inspiration is unquestioned.

3. It is in plain Bible language.
4. It is comprehensive and sufficient.
5. It is almost 3,400 years old.

6. It is the soul of the Hebrew religion; and it has sustained the Jewish race through all these centuries, in all their persecutions. Think of how Christian nations have persecuted this ancient and noble race, as the Russian government is doing to-day, and then think of their high place in the intellectual, financial, and literary circles of our time. This race has given civilization great statesmen, artists of renown, and noblest philanthropists. In our own city the Jews take care of their own poor, without asking our aid; and I am told that they are very generous in helping destitute Christians. The creed which has kept this brave race loyal to the worship of the God of their fathers, and true to the best things of life, is worthy of our highest respect.

7. It is a practicable creed. We can live it, and we ought to live it. It is impossible to live, sing, and rejoice in total depravity, eternal hell, and other wild doctrines of the dark ages. When a man attempts to believe them, he goes mad.

8. It must be the creed of all good souls. They could not be good without it. The angels can have no better creed. They need no better.

9. Christ said that all the law and the prophets hang on these two great commandments,-on this creed. It is the foundation of the union of morals and religion. It is an epitome of working faith.

10. When all Christian sects will unite, as they will do some day, when they are Christianized, it will be the basis of their union. Not one of them could refuse to accept it. If anything is added to it, the addition would be a cause for sectarian quarrels to no end.

JEWISH ELEMENTS IN CHRISTIANITY.The divine and permanent elements in Christianity are Jewish. Christianity was a seed in Abraham, it put forth its leaves in Moses, and it revealed itself as flowers in Christ. It was, in other words, born in the wonderful faith of Abraham; it was naturalized in the democratic and theocratic convictions of Moses; it was expanded into beautiful moral applications in the prophets; it was universalized in the teachings and life of Christ; and it was organized into churches by the executive genius of Paul. But Christianity is a development of Christ's creed, an application of its principles, a declaration of its laws, a fulfilment of its requirements, an outcome of its suggestions, a glorification of its statements, a divine assertion of its spirit. Surely, this creed, which Moses framed and emphasized with his mighty life, and which Christ adopted and sanctioned with his spiritual authority, is sufficient for any Christian church. It has all the qualities which the perfect creed should have, and it has nothing to "make of brethren foes."

JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY.—Although Christianity is Jewish, yet there is a difference between a Jew and a Christian. The Jew follows Moses, that grand providential son of God. The Christian accepts the authority of Christ, that Supreme Son of God. Yet these leaders were Jews. Jesus was born a Jew, he lived a Jew, he died a Jew. Christianity may be defined as Judaism plus Christ. Christ was the incarnation of the two great commandments, of Christ's creed. He expanded it into the gospel. He glorified it in his character. He exalted it in his teachings. He illustrated it in his example. He set it to music in his holy

life.

We find many instances of this law of fulfilment in history. The theocracy of Moses, the Republic of Plato, the Utopia of Sir Thomas More, the Commonwealth of Cromwell, were a series of dreams and struggles that found the highest expression

in Washington, accepting the supreme command of the colonial forces under the elmtree in Cambridge. A long line of experimenters, from Egypt to Scotland, preceded Watt, who invented the steam-engine. Hoe's steam-printing machine and the London Times and the New York World, rolling out thousands of impressions in a short time, are wonderful improvements upon the runes of Northern Europe, the symbols on the rocks of Asia, and the hieroglyphics in Egypt. The Phoenicians and Gutenberg are conspicuous figures in the series between the rock-writer and Hoe. Hoe is the fulfilment of every prophecy along that line. Arkwright's spinning jenny and Cartwright's steam-loom are developments of the spinning-wheel and the hand-loom. So this creed arose in Abraham, and passed through such souls as Joseph, Moses, Samuel, Elijah, John the Baptist, and then burst forth in gospel splendors in the triumphs of Christ.

NON-ESSENTIALS.-The ship in which Paul was carried toward Rome was wrecked, because his advice was not taken. To save the lives of the passengers, it was necessary to throw overboard the cargo. The Christian Church is like that ship. It seems to be sinking. Why? It is carrying a cargo of non-essentials. They must be thrown overboard, in order to save the ship, or, rather, in order to save the life of Christianity.

The Nicene Creed is a fine specimen of metaphysical gymnastics. It is interesting. as a production of hair-splitting ecclesiastics. Compared with Christ's simple creed, it is utterly worthless. The Athanasian Creed is a forgery. It was written centuries after the death of Athanasius. It is a curiosity, but it has no value as bread of life. It is a non-essential, a spiritual hindrance. The other numerous confessions of faith, which conceal Christ's creed, are doomed to be cast overboard to lighten the ship.

We see signs of better days. The dignified, grave, strong, and noble Presbyterian Church is beginning to throw overboard its non-essentials and encumbrances. In Japan the native Presbyterians refused to accept as authoritative any formula except the Apostles' Creed. Owing to the outcry made by the conservative wing, the progressive party permitted an introduction to be attached to that fine and beautiful creed,

a creed that no one could object to if studied without a theological bias. We see, also, in the same body a desire to free itself from unreasonable restraints, in the troubles concerning Dr. Briggs and Union Theological Seminary. We watch these movements toward the final adoption of Christ's perfect creed with sympathy and hopefulness; and we say, God bless the Presbyterian ship in its struggles to adjust itself to modern tendencies!

The warm-hearted, hard-working, selfsacrificing Methodist Church,-the church which does the most practical good, going first on the prairie and in the dark places of the earth to build up the kingdom of God,that church has to pass its judgment upon the difference between Paul and the Methodist women aspiring to speak in the church. When the local issues which caused Paul to forbid the woman of a certain church to preach are understood, then the great apostle and the Methodist women will shake hands; and it will be seen that the inspirations of the Almighty ignore the sex line, and the inspired Methodist woman, like Christ's mother in the temple, will speak her message to the profit of all.

He

The Episcopal Church, in which everything is done decently and in order, with all of its beautiful accessories of worship, is not quite satisfied with its own instrumentalities; for Bishop Brooks has spoken in favor of liberty for ministers to express in extempore prayer the promptings of the Holy Spirit, without ceasing to use the excellent prayers in the Prayer-book. represents the spirit of progress in that body, a spirit that is sure to win some day. The Catholic Church, the largest, strongest, oldest body in Christendom, is now showing its willingness to recognize and foster new tendencies in life. The pope has published a general letter about the toilers of the world, their rights and duties and relationships; and that letter manifests a kindly spirit, an earnest desire to help men whose conditions received little attention from the Church in former days, and it is full of common sense, good advice, and spiritual wisdom.

The Unitarian sermon of other days was a cold, intellectual, and moral essay, without any heart in it. The preacher seemned to be afraid of the heart or ashamed of it. So

the emphasis was put upon the necessity of moral culture and intellectual training; and these two forms of education characterize Boston, with its fifty liberal churches, as it is the most moral and intellectual city on the continent. But now Unitarianism is throwing its frozen negatives into the sea, and coaxing the human heart to drive forward its neat ship; and it is beginning to acknowledge the divinity of that command in Christ's creed, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.”

All this goes to show that the Church's eyes are opening to see two important things: first, there are essentials and nonessentials; and, second, we should cling to the essentials, and let the non-essentials go. The churches have wasted their strength in glorifying mere opinions as essentials, and they have too often forgotten what Christ himself commanded. If he had deemed the questions which have divided the Church into warring sects of any importance at all, he would have answered them fully. He believed and taught that his creed was sufficient for his followers. He gave no other, and therefore deemed no other necessary. The spirit of creed-making arose about 250 A.D., and the Nicene Creed was formulated in 325. For about three hundred years after Christ's death men and women followed Christ, lived good lives, suffered and died, with Christ's creed as their guide. Paul, John, Peter, were surely good Christians; yet they knew nothing of our inherited creeds. So those creeds are not essential to a Christian life. They are barnacles on the church ship, retarding her progress.

TRADITIONS.-Christ told the formalists of his day that they made the commandments of God of none effect through their traditions. They paid more attention to the washing of hands, pans, pots, ceremonies, and rites than to justice and mercy and kindness. They allowed a man to refuse needed help to his parents by saying his property was devoted. Their traditions usurped the place of God's commandments. Could not the Master say the same thing to the churches which are now called after his name? Our metaphysical distortions of the Bible; our confessions which deny his gospel and ignore human experience; our creeds which embody the speculations of Plato, Philo, Cerinthus, and the lax morals